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caused some youth to feel superior to their parents and fostered a
gulf between the generations. Because of the strong emphasis on work
and social responsibility, many children have lost the spirit of
youth, Salas (1979) believes.
Cumulative student profiles include academic data, biological,
social and economic data, personality traits, and political evaluations.
Ideological and political assessments are made by student organizations,
the school council, and other mass organizations. This information is
transferred to the work dossier on which data is continually accumulated
during adulthood, according to Salas.
Use of unpaid labor as an educational tool
Mesa-Lago (1972) writes that in Cuba unpaid labor has been con
sidered not only a means of economic development but "as an educational
tool in the construction of the so-called communist society" (p. 384).
He distinguishes five types of unpaid labor: work performed by employed
men and women after regular work hours; unemployed women's work; labor
performed by students as part of their education; social rehabilitation
work performed by people who have not been able to conform to the
Revolutionary system; and military service, compulsory for all males.
Most unpaid labor is called "voluntary," although there are many social,
political, and economic pressures placed on the workers to volunteer.
While some of these pressures are not unlike those expressed in some
ways in the U.S., they differ in the degree of overtness with which
they are expressed (Montaner, 1981).