This study investigates the fate of high school students with an age-grade gap at a state school in Rio de Janeiro, analyzing the placement experience in two learning acceleration classes in the Roberto Marinho Foundation Autonomy Program. From a set of observations through interviews, it aims, on the boundary between ethnography and education, to get a closer perspective of these students to try to build knowledge from new angles. It investigates the meaning of the reflections that these students make about their educational delay and the transition to the accelerated program on the experience of studying in these classes and the symbolic and concrete gains they perceived. It identifies the main reason for school failure as the students behavior problems, an explanation internalized by the students themselves. It characterizes the acceleration classes as a space for socialization and behavior suitability at the expense of learning, which ultimately ensures subordinate inclusion in the school system.