When preparing for a full ethnographic study during the school year 08/09 within the project “Active Citizenship? On Democratic Education in the Upper Secondary School”, I carried out a pilot study, during which I observed class meetings and lessons. In this paper presentation, I will show how teacher instructions lead to regulation during these meetings. When analysing interviews and observations, I have used Connell’s theories about masculinities and comparisons with Willis’s lads to show how gender norms and social class traditions are reproduced. This research shows that teachers’ regulation of topics and time enable the boys at the vehicle programme in an upper secondary school to openly show resistance. Although the students distrust the school system and teachers distrust the students’ ability to take democratic responsibility, it is difficult for the students to resistant in a fruitful way. They regard upper secondary school like a transport to the age when they are old enough to get a job and earn their own money. Yet, this transport is in conflict. The world around the boys is changing, and competence in academic skills, e.g. English or Maths, are now desired on the labour market.