School, Alienation, and Delinquency

Abstract

Social scientists and others have maintained that schools contribute to delinquency by their failure to prepare students properly for later life. Thus, their solution is better schools and better education. I argue that schools create delinquents because of their success, not their failure. Under the present economic system, schools must prepare youths, especially of the lower classes, for alienated work and lives. Youths become "delinquents" when they reject this destiny. It follows that the society and economy must change first, since they demand alienated labor, before schools can prepare people for liberated lives.