This text discusses the relationships between schooling and youth and the place of schools in the socialization of contemporary youth, especially in what regards young people from lower classes. It considers the hypothesis that the challenges and tensions between schooling and youth are the results of deep changes that have taken place in Western societies and have interfered both in the social production of individuals and in their times and spaces, affecting the institutions and the socialization process of the new generations. This paper thus discusses the characteristics of young students who study public high schools and provides evidence for the existence of a new youth condition in contemporary Brazil. it points out the challenges and concerns of schooling and youth, emphasizing the transformations within schooling institutions and the tensions and constraints in the difficult task of becoming students. The author finally concludes that schools have become less unequal but continue to be unfair.
Youth; Socialization; School