Abstract
In view of the expansion processes private education has undergone in recent years in Argentina, this article explores why adults choose private schools for their children. Assuming a vacancy of studies interested in the relationship that the different social groups have had with this type of institutions, the paper describes the relation between Argentinean upper class and this subsector of the educational system. From a socio-anthropological approach based on the analysis of the educational trajectories of three generations within this social group, the article documents the early formation of a circuit of private catholic schools that served the most privileged sectors of this country. Institutions that do not stand out for a high academic level maintain their relevance in the formative experiences of traditional families in Argentina throughout the twentieth century. The appeal of these schools lies in their productivity to guarantee the essential requirement for the reproduction of the upper class - the sociability between peers - and much less in the transmission of knowledge to take positions of power.
Upper class; Private sector; Educative trajectories; Educational fragmentation