One of the characteristics of ethnography is the use of concrete examples to shed light on the context of human experience. As part of a 2-year ethnographic project, students in a high school located between a deteriorating city and an affluent suburb were interviewed and observed to study the interaction between the school as a social system and adolescent adaptive behavior based on the peer reference process. The results indicated that polarized socialization at the school occurred in informal activities mediated by peer groups and curricular activities differentiated by academic performance. While clearly visable, both students and teachers considered the socialization process to be a natural phenomenon related to residential patterns. Sectioning was identified as the most powerful formal device that not only separated blacks and whites but also determined the structuring of educational knowledge and experience. Students appeared to act, to a significant extent, according to the teachers' expectations of them. Further research is needed to determine the effect of class on students in terms of placement in sections and associational patterns. (JAC)