The Sociology of a School

Abstract

r NHIS ESSAY1 is an attempt to set up a model which will perhaps shed light on what goes on in a secondary modern school for boys, of a particular type. The large number of secondary moderns which are of this type falls short, I hope, of a numerical majority. The example (called Black School) used to illustrate the model is fictitious. Hostility (between teachers and boys) is the key factor at Black School. It is present whenever a teacher deals with boys, but varies in intensity. At one extreme (uncommon but illuminating) it can be almost ferocious, when for example an inexperienced teacher wrestles with a lad for possession of a flick-knife, surrounded by cheering boys. Or when a gang yell derisively at a teacher, hoping twilight in the playground will mask their identity. At the other extreme, the hostility is so mild that it needs inverted commas. Arl example would be a teacher trying to make a class get on with a given task. They play him up by exaggerating the bluntness, or breaking the points, of their pencils, or by losing rubbers, or complaining loudly that they cannot see the blackboard, no matter where he stations it. With firmness, and not without humour, he overcomes their irrepressibility. Here the 'hostility' is like that between two football teams playing a really friendly match on both sides there is an element of play for play's sake. This is present almost always on the boys' side, but only rarely on the teacher's, because he is one against so many, whereas they are many against one. The most common hostility however lies between the mild and the ferocious and is, on the boys' side, almost a guerilla war against the teacher's standards a ragged, intermittent fight to be oneself by being spontaneous and irrepressible and by breaking rules.2 For examplethe boy giving out ink tries to make an entertainment out of it. Uproarious laughter is nipped in the bud by the teacher firmly taking hold of him. A friend, carried away by high spirits, trips the inkboy. The teacher's nimble footwork saves his suit. After the ritual caning and telling-oS, all is very quiet for a while. Apart from the boys' irrepressibility, rule-breaking and spontaneity, the things which make this example typical are: the general failure of 264