Abstract:
Rolling in It: The rules of entitlement at wealthy schools for boys Incidents involving the misogynistic behaviour of boys from rich single sex schools often hit the headlines. The schools’ responses usually involve crisis management and promises of some form of remedy. These incidents, and such responses, are indicative of the rules of entitlement that are implicitly instilled by such schools. In this paper I will share some examples of these incidents and the schools’ responses. From them I will elaborate on the rules of entitlement that they exhibit. Overall, I argue that if, as they promise, these schools are to challenge such behaviour the, currently popular, ‘consent’ and ‘respect’ education is not enough. They will need to consider breaking their own implicit rules. I suggest that one reason they, and their client class, would resist doing so is that such rules are essential to preparing boys for rapid ascent up the misogyny pipe-line to positions of power. I will explain the key features of this pipeline. The paper draws insights from my long-standing research program on elite schools and from other recent research on the topic.