ABSTRACT
The grammar school ensures for most of those who pass successfully through it a relatively high social status in contemporary Britain. It exacts a formidable price for this service. Although it carries high prestige and has the confidence of the majority of parents at all social levels, it systematically humiliates its pupils, reduces their self-esteem, promotes uncertainties, ambiguities and conflicts in social relationships, a negative—even a despairing—outlook on life and society.
