| Sumario: | As opposed to what happens in other parts of Brazil where industrial schools are attended mainly by children of manual workers, in São Paulo this type of secondary school attracts substantial proportions of students from the middle and tipper-middle classes. The hypothesis is entertained that the fact could be explained by the large influx of foreign immigrants with different attitudes towards school and work. The distribution of various ethnic groups in different types of school is examined. Controlling for social class, no difference is found among "Brazilians," Japanese, Italians, Portuguese and Spaniards. The greater acceptance of industrial schools in São Paulo is shown to result mainly from choices made by middle class "Brazilians" who are by far the largest group in the student population. It is suggested that the greater acceptance of this type of school in São Paulo as corn pared to other parts of Brazil is related to the heavy concentration of industrial plants in the São Paulo metropolitan area, and the availability of well paid technical jobs in the modern sectors of the economy.
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