When first published this book had a significant influence on the campaign for comprehensive schools and it spoke to generations of working-class students who were either deterred by the class barriers erected by selective schools and elite universities, or, having broken through them to gain university entry, found themselves at sea. The authors admit at the end of the book they have raised and failed to answer many questions, and in spite of the disappearance of the majority of grammar schools, many of those questions still remain unanswered.

When first published this book had a significant influence on the campaign for comprehensive schools and it spoke to generations of working-class students who were either deterred by the class barriers erected by selective schools and elite universities, or, having broken through them to gain university entry, found themselves at sea. The authors admit at the end of the book they have raised and failed to answer many questions, and in spite of the disappearance of the majority of grammar schools, many of those questions still remain unanswered.