In the United States, public schools have become an extraordinary force in the folklife of children. On school playgrounds children have been brought together in large numbers. Physical education teachers have taught organized sports which the children have taken out to their neighborhoods. In classrooms a counter culture has developed, characterized by children's organized efforts to subvert the educational process. Fights, friendships and flirtations (some of the performances of children's folklife) often preoccupy students to the detriment of the learning process.

To counter children's counter culture, public schools have offered ...