This research concerned political socialization in the early grades in two elementary schools with particular attention to differential socialization of middle and lower class children, and boys and girls. The research focused on authority patterns, teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil behavior streams and interaction, how teachers present the outside world and their own role definitions, and children's orientations to these issues. Taped interviews were conducted with 40 children in a lower class school and 60 children in a middle class school. Interviews dealt with perceptions of the teachers and students, classroom conflict and authority, and social issues. The study also examined some ways in which classroom activities socialize children to prevailing values of a society and its culture, how children experience the everyday political world of the classroom, when authority functions well and when conflicts occur, and how these factors are related to the child's evolving awareness and involvement in power relationships. (Author)