In his book, Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, Shamus Khan provides an ethnographic perspective to the world of elite boarding schools through his experience both as a student and as a full-time faculty member at St. Paul’s School. To preface the book, Khan reflects on his experience at St. Paul’s as a teenager-specifically the factors that led to his enrollment as well as his experience as a minority in the community. A product of two immigrant parents, one from South Asia and the other from Ireland, Khan was provided unique experiences amongst the traditionally WASP students matriculating at St.
Paul’s. Because his parents had to perform a “cultural catch-up,” as well as being physically identifiable as non-white, high school-age Shamus Khan stood out amid his peers because his family accrued their wealth through labor, as opposed to inheriting their capital. To demonstrate his parents’ emphasis on their children’s success, he describes a moment during his youth when his father explained the absence of books in their family home by saying that “Someday, my kids can have all the books they want” (3).
When Khan arrived on St. Paul’s campus for the first time, he was forcibly reminded of his difference from traditionally elite families when he was made to live in a dormitory specifically for minority students. Literally removed from his elite, White peers, Khan’s separation allowed him to take a critical look at how the culturally elite have functioned in the country, specifically in relation to education. In his first chapter, “The New Elite” (pages 18-40), Khan begins to delve into his experience as a teacher by recalling specific interactions he had with students, notably one Chase Abbott who came from a traditionally elite family, all of whom attended St Paul’s.
According to Khan, Abbott represents the class of individuals who take elite schooling for granted because it is a seen as a birthright and not as something that is earned through years of hard work. Khan notes that these one-on-one interactions were possible because the school specifically built time into the daily schedule for students to share meals with faculty, allowing personal relationships to develop. Students like Abbott, specifically those who can trace their affiliation to the elite institution they are a part of back several generations, were once the norm as Khan recalls.
Now, traditionally elite families are essentially ostracized at St. Paul’s, as they are judged for not having “earned” their place. A new standard for eliteness permeates the St. Paul’s campus. Likened to Carnegie and Rockefeller during the Gilded Age, this new elite is also expected to be able to trace their affiliations to success, but not through family connections but rather through tangible hard work. Although this new elite appeared to favor meritocracy at its emergence, its Whiteness and exclusivity remained essential tenets to its existence.
Khan points to this fundamentally exclusive nature with specific examples such as the armory on New York City’s Upper East Side- a clear indication of division of classes as the old elite tried to physically protect themselves against potential class warfare (27). One of the most obvious examples of the contemporary elite classes isolating themselves is the participation in the American boarding school.
Following in the footsteps of prominent schools such as Phillips Andover and Exeter, St. Paul’s emerged in the latter half of the 19th century to provide isolation for the offspring of the elite, as well as a stepping stone for further successes in life.. Although St. Paul’s only offered three courses (Latin, Greek, and mathematics) as well as a deep commitment to religious studies in its earliest years, it rapidly became a well-renown institution that propelled teenagers into the Ivy League. Khan argues that the success of the American boarding school is rooted in the drive for the elite to “protect themselves through the removed location … and] cultural institutions (such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art] to construct distinctions” (27).
While this success thrived on aristocracy and meritocracy definitions of the elite alike, the experience for the students today is driven by the expectation to perform at their highest level. No longer do students like Chase Abbott automatically succeed in school, his poorer, and/or more “diverse” classmates who would not likely have been admitted to the school 25 years ago are now outperforming the students like Abbott, and are redefining the standard prep school student.
Observing and analyzing the inner workings of communities such as St. Paul’s helps us understanding the changing face of the elite classes in this country. Ultimately, the cultures that these schools perpetuate have larger ramifications for the next generation of leaders in this country, these young people are generally more open and come from less traditionally elite backgrounds, but the institutions of power still only let a privileged few succeed.
