ABSTRACT
Schools are an introduction into the adult world. They can be seen as some vast initiation ceremony, preparing young people for the life to come. In the ways in which they are organized, with tiers of examinations as formalized rites of passage, this remains true. Success at school is measured by the outcome, by the entry into the next stage, and rarely as something worth while in its own right. The ‘top-down’ barriers dictated by universities, another rite of passage, or by more direct entry into the world of work, create an enclosure, a limitation around the experience of school. Even from an early age, pupils understand schooling as a preparation for something else (Cullingford, 1991). It is seen as an interim stage, like growing up. Its meaning depends upon whatever happens later.
