1 BODIES AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL: TOWARD A THEORY OF EMBODIED SOCIAL CLASS STATUS Sue Ellen Henry Education Department Bucknell University Abstract. Sociology has long recognized the centrality of the body in the reciprocal construction of individuals and society, and recent research has explored the inﬂuence of a variety of social institutions on the body. Signiﬁcant research has established the inﬂuence of social class, child-rearing practices, and variable language forms in families and children. Less well understood is the inﬂuence of children’s social class status on their gestures, comportment, and other bodily techniques. In this essay Sue Ellen Henry brings these two areas of study together to explore how working-class children’s bodies are shaped by the child-rearing practices associated with their social class status, and the potential effects these bodily techniques have on their experience in schools. ‘‘Brandon, come up here,’’ commanded Mr. Coates, a white, middle-aged veteran 4th grade teacher and part-time football coach for the local middle school. Brandon is a quiet boy of about four and a half feet tall: white, with dirty blonde hair, wearing an oversized t-shirt hanging to his knees displaying Dale Earnhart’s signature. He slowly approaches Mr. Coates’ desk. ‘‘When I ask you to get to work, that’s what I mean,’’ Mr. Coates stands and ﬁrmly explains to Brandon. ‘‘Look at me when I’m talking to you. If you don’t look at me, I don’t feel the respect I deserve. Stand up straight — in our school, you stand up straight and look people in the eye when they are talking. Got it?’’ — Research ﬁeldnotes, October 2010 Introduction Bodies matter. How one moves physically through the world — gestures, gait, hold of the hands, frame of the face, gaze of the eyes, our ‘‘bodily techniques’’ — have an impact on one’s experience of the world as well as on the constitution of the world itself. This statement seems obvious in many ways. And yet, despite its transparency, the work of school focuses on developing the mind — the cognitive — and educators and researchers alike frequently ignore the body. In school, there is what sociologist Chris Shilling calls an ‘‘absent presence’’ of the body: there, but not there. 1 Despite this lacuna, if one looks deeply, a clear vision of the body emerges. The oft-cited rules for the contemporary elementary classroom provide ample evidence: keep your hands to yourself; leave your seat only when necessary; be quiet in the hallways; raise your hand before speaking; stay in line. In an organizational system that is primarily designed to socialize (some might say ‘‘civilize’’) children, how do these latent corporeal rules interact with the corporeal rules children learn in their homes? What are the consequences for children when the corporeal rules conﬂict? In this article I address these questions by exploring the emerging ﬁeld of corporeal realism, developed by Chris Shilling. The inﬂuence of social class on 1. Chris Shilling, The Body and Social Theory, 2nd ed. (London: Sage, 2003), 17. EDUCATIONAL THEORY Volume 63 Number 1 2013  2013 Board of Trustees University of Illinois