The present work initially proposed to investigate the goals and objectives of their respective disciplines, the school where they teach, and the general public education, in the view of teachers of a public secondary school in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Based on the author s practical experience in object design, and on the theoretical contributions of Bourdieu, Ball, and other authors related to the sociology of education, the study indicates the existence of a gap between the proposed educational goals and objectives and those achieved; the school evaluation reflects the purposes of teaching for those who evaluate. Fieldwork consisted of semi-structured interviews with the school principal, with 16 teachers representing different curriculum disciplines who had 10 or more years of teaching at the high-school level, and observations from the end-of-year school boards. The findings pointed to the lack of clarity in the definition of the objectives of the subjects, and to the lack of knowledge about the goals and objectives of the school in which they work and of public education in general. It was evidenced that there is a transfiguration of the purposes of teaching, from the official documents or personal proposals of the teachers to the moments of evaluation, especially the last ones of the academic year and, besides, as a finding of the empirical research, it was perceived that these modifications are given by a characteristic school logic and defining the dynamics of the teaching profession. The daily work guide for teachers is given partly by the curriculum of the course, partly by a personal elaboration of each teacher, and partly by a teacher culture that values, above all, attitudinal aspects of the students instead of the disciplinary knowledge. The contradiction between the teachers good intentions to approve students with low learning level and the result of their actions in the reproduction of school and social inequalities is highlighted. The specific social structure of Brazil is analysed and it is perceived the congruence between it, characterized by social inequality, authoritarianism, and tutelage, and the attitude manifested by the teachers researched in their professorial culture to value above all the objectives related to education, awakening of the individual, preparation for citizenship (and others related to them), softening the contents of discipline, reducing them in quantity and depth, relativizing the criteria adopted for evaluation, and willingness to give notes to students for the basic purpose of passing school.