ABSTRACT
The process of making boys into men is a powerful engine of social class and gender reproduction and change. Schools like Ellesmere developed during nineteenth century with the increasing size and complexity of administrative, commercial and industrial organisations and the gradual introduction of examinations as a means of recruitment and promotion. From the late nineteenth century schools played an increasing part in preparing boys and smaller number of girls for the labour market. The school's effectiveness was based on rigour of the regime, every aspect of which was harnessed towards the end of producing successful career men. The school was a good father but a poor mother, providing for boys, managing their careers and supplying models of masculinity. The models of masculinity underlying public school education were variations of class-specific concepts. The schools, as parents realised, were the most effective means available of reproducing conceptions of masculinity also found in the grammar schools, the media of the labour market.
