That educational accomplishments determine career patterns and social success is central to theoretical traditions now dominant in most Western nations, and to popular understanding of and justification for education, as well. This faith in the efficacy of education in channeling the most talented individuals into prestigious, powerful, and highly remunerated social positions naturally deflects criticism of the inequalities characteristic of advanced industrial societies. In contrast with earlier types of inequality, the newer forms can be defended as, to a great extent, the result of differences in individual merit.

— Schooling in Western Europe by Mary Jo Maynes (Page 3)