In the process of modernization, there is increased demand in the labour market for children as human capital. Since the educated are rewarded more than the uneducated, it is tempting for parents to educate their children in order to tap this new resource for the benefit of the family. Yet it is more likely that the pressure for education of the younger generation comes from outside rather than from inside the family. From a societal viewpoint, education provides an upward ladder for the gifted, and a key to national economic growth. It has a redistributive function to further social justice and it provides an electorate with education in responsible choice. Schools make citizens out of family members, teaching individuals how to act for the good of society. Moreover, if the young are kept out of the labour market, either from considerations of humanity or because they are perceived to be competing with their elders for wages, the social problem of idle youth must be coped with. In every society, those in the gap between childhood and adulthood pose special problems. The school provides a reasonably effective agency of social control.