Personally, I think class, gender and race are ultimately major factors; there's huge amounts of literature on their effects on society. But it's probably easie

Personally, I think class, gender and race are ultimately major factors; there's huge amounts of literature on their effects on society. But it's probably easier to look directly at schools and families; these are the most concrete relevant institutions. Schools generally aren't enlightened places. Many of them, especially for the poor, are particularly clear about their prison-like nature: need for written permission to move ("hall pass"), threat of prison, etc. So you get some prison-like dynamics. But even many above-average ones impose hierarchy, rating individuals and setting them against each another using competition (competition is a well-known way to atomize and control people), obedience to authority figures no matter how ridiculous, etc. In any case, these places generally provide virtually nothing in the way of conflict resolution, like particularly nasty governments. And most families aren't utopian institutions either. Parents often act like owners of their children, and take out their frustrations and psychological problems on them. Child abuse (even for conservative notions of "abuse") is rampant. Even when parents aren't overtly abusive, they may simply not be particularly competent at the skill of nurturing children's minds and bodies.