ABSTRACT
Misbehaviour in class can disturb the work of other pupils, whilst children who experience difficulty with their work only hamper their own progress. Children arrive at school with different attitudes, expectations and behaviour patterns; but recent research recognises that schools are very different in their policies and practices, and that some, rather than support pupils who arrive with personal problems and difficulties actually contribute to their difficulties and exacerbate the pupil's problems. Pupils expect teachers to teach them, to maintain discipline, and in the modern comprehensive, to demonstrate a caring attitude which pastoral care systems have stimulated if not fulfilled. Most of the pupils interviewed were of average or below average attainment, and they were critical of inappropriate work, and of teachers who did not assist them or adequately explain the set exercises. Schools have been described as person-changing institutions' and teaching as 'an assault on self'.
