Early childhood experience is often crucial in establishing the cognitive and affective structures of the child. In particular, the preschool experience of the lower class child establishes patterns of responsive behavior and ways of relating to the authority structure of the school which are not conducive to academic learning and prevent the child from taking full advantage of the cognitive experiences available. The influence on the child of his mother's attitudes is the subject of this study. Mothers have been grouped into two types for this study: (1) status oriented mothers, who emphasize the difference in status and power between the child and the teacher and offer compliance and docility as techniques for the child to deal with the classroom situation, and (2) the person oriented mother, who sees less distance between herself and the school and is thus less concerned with obedience and more concerned with cognitive development. The population investigated in this study was urban and rural Negro, white, and Seminole Indian families. Eight predictions were made concerning the effect of the mother's attitude on the child's performance on various cognitive tests. The data analysis is not yet complete. An appendix following the study presents a parent attitude questionnaire. (WD)