Edmond Goblot, The barrier and the level. Sociological study on the bourgeoisie in modern French, Paris, 1925
“It is not quite true that the bourgeoisie exists only in the realm of morals and not laws. The school, in fact, a legal institution. She even has her official titles, bearing the signatures of ministers, with stamps, of stamps, of all the sacraments of government ; and it is today, I believe, the single administrative document, which is still made of this precious material and durable it was, in the olden time the securities authentic : the parchment. The bachelor’s degree, this is the serious barrier, the barrier is official and guaranteed by the State, which defends against the invasion. It becomes a bourgeois, it is true; but for this, you must first become a bachelor. “
“When a family rises from the working class to the bourgeoisie, it does not happen in a single generation. She comes when she managed to give her children the secondary education and get the bachelor’s degree. “
The bachelor works as a barrier between the social classes
“For a society to split into classes, there must be something artificial and fake replaces the ramps, on-going stairs, leaves or appear at levels very few and far between and, i.e. creates a new or difficult obstacles to overcome, and puts on the same level as those who have crossed. This is the function, – the unique function, – the bachelor’s degree. “