This article is based on a monographic study of a school founded by the jesuits in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, whose clientele is drawn mainly from the business bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. In particular it studies the teaching methods applied and the professional and family trajectories, the matrimonial strategies, and the division of family work between spouses of those graduating from the school with the baccalauréat in 1961. It also seeks to show how certain private schools can be seen as substitutes for family authority, charged with transmitting a model of education that is made more homogeneous by the fact that the parents share with the teachers the same conception of the role of the family and the school; and that these schools keep their pupils away from all contact with children from other social classes, not only during teaching time but also (it is one of the "specialities" of this kind of school) during most of the leisure activities for which they are responsible.
