The basic premise of this book, building on a long line of developmental and educational research, is that American high schools house two intertwined and occasionally competing arenas of activity – the social activity of peer culture and the scholastic activity of the academic curriculum. The interplay between these two arenas of activity is not a new phenomenon nor a newly studied one. Still, it does get obscured, for a variety of reasons, in policy-oriented discussions of education and can sometimes be dismissed by parents and other adults who are more focused on the significance of academic progress and credentials to teenagers' long-term trajectories into adulthood. Moreover, the very nature of this interplay is evolving in qualitative ways against the backdrop of major macrolevel social change.

As a starting point, then, I want to take readers through a typical day in the life of two teenagers. I chose two Lamar High students who come from different parts of town. Both are teenage boys, although I could have easily picked two teenage girls and achieved the same effect. These boys' days are, superficially at least, quite different from each other. Beneath the surface, however, they share some basic commonalities, commonalities that provide a valuable window into both the historical continuities and recent developments of modern high school life.