Shamus Rahman Kahn: Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School

Abstract

In Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, Shamus Rahman Kahn provides empirical research, discussion, interviews and commentary on the raising and educating of the children of the ‘‘new privileged.’’ Standardized testing, need-based financial aid, affirmative action and generally a more open attitude toward inclusivity and diversity has moved our society far away from the inequality in education that existed up to the late 20th Century. For example, the Kahn cites research that shows that only 0.8 % of the students at elite colleges were black in 1951, whereas today, more than 8 % of the students at Ivy League are black. In this new society where children of the aristocrats are no longer entitled to things but must work to retain their status, some adolescents of the aristocrats struggle to find a place, while some have acclimated to and thrive in this new environment. Kahn displays his research in the context of St. Paul’s School, an elite boarding school in New Hampshire where Kahn attended as a student and also returned later as a teacher and a researcher. In Chapter 1, Kahn sets the framework for the rest of the book. In order to understand the different world children of the elite live in, Kahn urges us to understand the notion of the ‘‘new privileged.’’ He compares his experiences as a minority student at St. Paul’s School decades ago to that of Chase Abbott, a wealthy student attending the school today whose last name is used to name one of the buildings on campus. As a racial minority, Kahn was sequestered in the exclusive environment within St. Paul’s when he was a student. In comparison, today it is Chase who is sequestered within St. Paul’s. He explains this phenomenon through his notion of the ‘‘new privileged.’’ The elite status in today’s society can no longer be inherited by aristocracy; it can only be obtained by meritocracy. In 1929, for example, the majority of income (70 %) of the richest 0.01 % came from capital, while only 10 % came from employment. But today, only 17 % of income of the same group comes from capital, while 52 % comes from employment. Kahn argues that elite status can no longer be passed down from father to son but the son must earn elite status through merit. Kahn also argues that students like Chase isolate themselves at St. Paul’s and demand their status as if it were their birthright. The result is that students like Chase have a difficult time adjusting to St. Paul’s and they are often the topic of discussion among faculty members who argue that there is no longer a place for students like Chase at St. Paul’s. In contrast, Kahn compares Chase to another student, Peter, who embodies the ‘‘new privileged.’’ Like Chase, Peter comes from the same privileged background. His parents attended Harvard, he has a long legacy at St. Paul’s, and he knew a lot of the students at St. Paul’s before coming to school. However, what is different about Peter is that Chase understood his position at St. Paul’s as his birthright while Peter understood it as fruit of his hard work, combined with his privileged background. Furthermore, Peter embraces the racial minorities and the differences that exist at St. Paul’s. In later chapters Kahn explains how the ‘‘new privileged’’ like Peter are able to reproduce elite status. In Chapter 2, entitled ‘‘Finding One’s Place,’’ Kahn discusses the work and effort that must be put in, in order to acclimate to the new world of the privileged. Even the title of the chapter suggests that attending an elite school like St. Paul’s requires students to actively seek and earn a & E. Daniel Kim eundkim@indiana.edu