The present dissertation aims to comprehend the socialization produced by the Brazilian school in the context of educational expansion. Thus, it presents ethnographical field situations of school recesses in four elementary public schools in Rio de Janeiro, in order to identify limits and potentialities of the socialization of lower-class students. The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 confers centrality to public schools in the socialization of all children and, according to its principles, one of school s task is to develop individuals capacity to act in society to strengthen democracy. Since the educational interaction suffers the effect of the social condition of the student, majorly favela inhabitant, the recess situations seem to indicate a socialization in which there is a low expectation of reciprocity that may produce a fragile integration in society. Furthermore, the different ways of socialization observed offered low possibilities to lower-class students equally experiment democracy and educational potentialities.