When interviewing a 17 year old female student at The Croft School, details on social life and hierarchy at the school emerged. When asked about social groups Maria states, “There’s always the popular ones, the ones that hate studying. They have very bad grades. They only go to school to hang out. They go to parties”. Then going into further detail, Maria mentions how these students are usually a lot richer than the rest of school. They don’t need to study or go to class because there is no reason to. She says, “ Some of us, like me, study very hard because we need really high grades to enter university. And others not so much because they can enter easily”. The student interviewed here alludes to wealth and privilege playing a role in entering college, and not needing to try or get good grades to do so. Maria illustrated the lack of care or concern that some students have for trying in school, and how she has noticed it’s relation to social class. 

There are several interesting concepts here. First, the Croft School is an elite institution catering to the elite. There is no middle or lower class representation. And yet, these students still distinguish themselves on attitudes and social class. All of these students continue their education in high school because of these connections. Student X mentioned, “ I think that they have more opportunities because of contacts… often people from the (Croft School) are the bosses of big companies and important places and sometimes legal companies… it’s a very big network and we have lots of advantages”. Elite institutions, even without the education, create a network of highly wealthy elite families. Families want their children to attend elite institutions to increase their access and social capital. 

Bourdeiu discusses social capital as a series of resources based on group membership, relationships, networks of influence, and support systems (Bourdieu 1986). The Croft School provides opportunities for students to connect and meet others in possession of wealth and opportunities that can then be passed down to the next generation of elite Croft School graduates. Not only does this help students and their families, but it also cements the school in having elite status. Cultural capital, both institutionalized and embodied, comes into play. Students at the Croft school receive an elite institution diploma, as well as a set of behaviors and expectations on how to remain elite. 

Finally, returning to my last point, schools have several objectives, both spoken and unspoken. While growing up in the U.S. I do believe that schools have a role in preparing students in an economic sense, schools also contribute to the development of social and cultural capital. In this case, although students should want to be educated for purposes of education, the Croft School provides students with a variety of other objectives that contribute to the success of elite students and families. So yes, attending an elite institution without care or concern for academic success or one’s future, is in this case worth it.