Education as elite team‑building

Elite Victorian schooling prioritized organized sports, long unstructured social time, and rituals that built intra‑elite loyalty and networks rather than maximizing classroom STEM hours. Those institutions treated formation of cooperative character and social connections as the primary curriculum for rulers and managers. — If schooling can deliberately cultivate social capital and elite cohesion, contemporary debates about prioritizing STEM, character education, or civic mentoring should treat team‑building as a legitimate, historically successful policy lever for state and corporate capacity.