ABSTRACT
The pupil becomes mysterious in proportion as he or she becomes an object resistant to our ideals and practical concerns; in proportion therefore as we are rejected or ignored in their lives. The production and development of IQ tests and their legitimisation within selection procedures from 1944 became a powerful method for sifting the materials into secondary moderns, technical schools and grammar schools. Being a pupil entails allowing oneself to be manipulated, losing self-responsibility, losing oneself within a web of manipulative intents and progressive submissions to the other, allowing oneself to be measured by the criteria of others, to be the material for their production goals and character moulds. Those pupils who do not attempt full and open rebellion but attempt to live with one foot in the world of social conformity learn to cope with a world of Machiavellian games playing.
