ABSTRACT
The headmaster, who lives on the spot, is rarely able or willing to spend much time away from his school: and the staff, many of whom live actually in the school buildings, are equally tied down. The desire for communal life and community groups among boys and adolescents is always strong. In the absence of a link between the family group and the outside world, they form their own link. The clientéle of the public schools is drawn from those middle- and upper-class people with sufficient money to pay the fees. Since the middle classes are in the majority, it is their influence which predominates. The disciplinary-religious-moral tradition is kept going by the headmaster and staff working through the prefectorial system. Minor, everyday breaches of discipline, and the everyday enforcement of discipline when it is not breached, are chiefly dealt with by prefects or monitors.
