As the major instrument for the discovery and training of talent, the school in contemporary technological society plays an increasingly deterministic role in the selection of individuals for particular occupations and, hence, particular positions in the social hierarchy. The Netherlands was chosen as a research site because the consequences of educational selection were anticipated as being particularly pronounced where streaming is a well established practice. To demonstrate the importance of analyzing schools as mechanisms of social selection, questionnaires were administered to all the fourth-year boy students (1,239) attending a selected sample of 44 secondary schools and representing all socioeconomic levels. Results of the study indicated that streaming tends to maintain the present system of social stratification in two ways. First, it functions as a "cooling-out" mechanism by bringing aspirations in line with expectations, and, second, it reduces objective distribution of talent by creating a social distance between certain classes and certain types of schools. Streaming was also found to contribute to the maintenance of patterns of deference to the opinions of an educated elite. [Not available in hard copy due to marginal legibility of original document] (Author/JK)