This book reports a study of learning and socialization in typically urban schools characterized by didactic teaching, minimal exploration and initiation by the children, little probing for personal or intellectual meaning, and strong adherence to established curriculum and external symbols of success. The child population includes low-income Negro and white classes, and middle-income Negro and white classes at second- and fifth-grade levels. The primary goal is the investigation of the subtle ways in which the teacher reflects the dominant values of a society, and the biasing of teaching and learning in the public schools by stereotyped attitudes toward low-income and minority group children. Data were gathered from observations in the classrooms, interviews with the teachers, and brief sessions with the children. (EM)