On Becoming a Dropout

This study explores some aspects of the relation between Sch, the economy, the fam & dropouts. The groups were composed into 2 groups of impoverished Negro boys who dropped out a yr or 2 before HSch graduation. They had been enrolled in 4 inner-city Sch's of a large Eastern metropolis where the student body is all Negro. The interviews were conducted in groups. The technique used was that of a directed but nonstructured interview. The boys were encouraged to interact with each other &, within the framework of the focus of the study, to express their opinion freely. The boys thus revealed their self-image, the view of the change of their status from student to drop-out, & their perception of the Sch, the fam & the world at large. It appears that the classroom provided an ego-threatening situation: their age, since they were repeaters, inability to grasp information, fear of test, insufficient help on the part of the teachers & disparaging attitude of the peers. The need for money was a further motivation for leaving Sch. Even in cases where the Sch helped them to find a job, this gesture served only to disengage them further from the Sch. The fam's seemed to have contributed to their dropping out of Sch by being permissive. A. Peskin.