Shamus Rahman Khan's Priviledge: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School

Returning to his old high school after having had graduate ten years ago, Shamus Rahman Khan came in with one goal: to study the inequality of a school that claims to be more “diverse.” St. Paul’s School located in Concord, New Hampshire claims to have become more diverse over the years, accepting people of different racial backgrounds and social classes to their prestigious boarding school. However, as described in his book, Khan found that this claim made by the school is false. He also found out that the elite that used to attend his school is not the same as the elite attending it now. Nonetheless, it was the elite that were succeeding because they were the ones who could afford the school, had family linages that already attended the school, and mastered “ease” which made them privileged in society. Separating his book into five different chapters, each focusing on a different topic that helps support his claim, Khan describes this change in elite and the inequality that still accompanies St. Paul’s. In the introduction to Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, Khan states the three most important points he will refer to during the rest of the book: hierarchies are natural and can be used to one’s advantage, experiences matter more than inherited qualities, and the elite signal their status through ease and openness. These are discussed thoroughly in throughout Privilege.

The New Elite, or Chapter 1, is where Khan introduces the idea of the new elite appearing at St. Paul’s. The new elite, according to Khan, believes that they achieve what they do because of their hard work. On the other hand, the old elite, that is slowly disappearing, believes they achieve their success because of their family ...

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...h School ten years later, Shamus Rahman Khan discovers that the school that claims to have become more diverse still has a lot of inequality in it. The way to succeed in this school is to master the art of being at ease with different things, from students’ own behavior to forming relationships across different classes and cultures. If this does not happen, then the students are not privileged and will not succeed or go off to a good college. The illusion of equality is ripped into snippets because of Khan’s different reasoning behind why only the elite are succeeding.

Works Cited

Khan, Shamus Rahman. 2011. Privilege The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Adams, Crystal. 2014. "Social Stratification in the U.S." Lecture conducted in Introduction to

Sociology. University of Miami, February 2.