| Abstract: | This article identifies and describes a phenomenon that has arisen over the course of the last generation: an institutionalized "afterschool" period marked by children's involvement in adult-organized and -supervised activities. We trace the historical development of this period and examine its socializing influences on children. Children experience passage through an "extracurricular career" that begins with a recreational ambiance but progresses into competitive and finally elite activities as they grow older and become more skilled. Along this route, their leisure activities become less spontaneous and more rationalized, focused, and professionalized. Adults' incursion into children's play thus represents a means for them to reproduce the existing social structure and to socialize young people to the corporate work values of American culture. |
