ABSTRACT
Social background was a fairly powerful factor determining educational routes through the city's school system, and the social backgrounds of students entering secondary schools in Milltown were far from heterogeneous. The intake of Milltown High School was predominantly from the inner city and was therefore almost completely working class. There were also some teachers who left the school, and in some cases teaching altogether, because they were unable or unwilling to make the adjustments required in order to survive at Milltown High. Many teachers developed what Stebbins calls a 'custodial orientation' to school life in which they placed 'emphasis on control at the expense of teaching'. The structural 'underclass' location of many of the students at the school produces a peer group culture characterized by low academic motivation, low self-expectations, and rejection of school values and norms.
