The intent of this brief paper is two-fold: (1) to review selected past studies and discuss what is believed to be misdirections in their focus and inadequate methodology and (2) to report a series of studies that attempt to counter these shortcomings. It is held that, by focusing on discrete components, such as curriculum, and using limiting measures, such as questionnaires, previous work has failed to provide adequate insight into the process of political socialization in the school. For this reason, looking at informal peer interaction by means of observation was chosen in this study. The primary methodology of the Schwartz and Lopate studies described in this paper was participant observation in the schools, observations being supplemented by interviews with staff, parents, and children. A playground study used a more systematic observation methodology. The observed students were in middle childhood, between nine and eleven years of age. The paper concludes that it is clearly in interaction in the peer group that children are able to learn and practice political skills, whereas (1) the textbook as a learning resource makes children docile and believe in the symbolic idealized picture of politics and (2) pupil time in the classroom is largely reacting against teachers and the school and hardly in political socialization. (Author/JM)