Drop - Out 1963

everybody that I knew my good friends had pin their hopes on me oh this is the guy that's going to go through school I let a lot of them down walking around I think about that a lot you know how come I did this and how come I did that you know [Music] waste 2 and a half years there's no about that right now I'm not doing anything I'm uh drifting just four years ago Alfred Barnard of Quincy Illinois was an honored student at the Quincy High School his IQ 118 an a student in the eighth grade B's and A's in ninth grade still an honor student one year later D's and F failure Al Berard dropped out of school one of millions of American youngsters out of school out of work most of them like Al just [Music] drifting in these years of decision the class Bell Rings America's youth into High School a high school diploma is a strong weapon in this troubled world most students graduate but not all one out of three high school students in the nation do not graduate 1 million high school students drop out every year in big cities from schools like this in Quincy Illinois Quincy is a typical American city on the banks of the Mississippi here lives a Dropout Alfred barard age 18 Al is not a typical Dropout no one is typical but some of his reasons may be and the unreasoning resentment that made him do what he did what was it in school that made you mad at uh everything well I I was doing pretty good in uh the 10th grade and uh then I skipped school for a week one time and uh I got a few lectures on it in front of the class and that kind of made me a little angry so I that kind of build up in me you know and I just quit do you think it was uh impulsive now do you think it was ill considered uh yes I do now uh I definitely need schooling I think anybody does but uh at the time when I quit I didn't think too much about that I just thought about getting away from the teachers and getting a job and making money soon as you quit school what did you do well I I looked for a job and I found one right away at the Shoe Factory and I worked there for about n months and I quit because the work got monotonous and so on do you remember uh what you were thinking about when you when you went into this long period of skipping why did you want to skip I can't think any reason for that I just me this kid just decided to skip so we skipped I mean there was there wasn't any reason was your school work up to Snuff yes well Al some of these teachers indicate that there was a very Sudden Change in your attitude from good work to bad work can you remember any thing that happened either in or out of school would would have caused a very Sudden Change uh the only thing I can think of would just be skipping school there was a lot of things that were uh connected with it but uh such as uh when I was in school some classes I wouldn't have enough work and I'd be daydreaming about uh the other guys quitting school my age having jobs clothes things like that but uh I think the the big Factor was the uh lecture on skipping school well when you went into this final period of skipping did why did you suddenly decide to start skipping school uh I think it just come on all of a sudden I mean the guy says left skip I can't remember who said it but uh it just happened there was no reason for it what about work here is there any kind of work that you can get that you'd like no there's not there's not much uh job opportunities at all do you have any notion about what kind of work you'd like to get uh when I was smaller I always wanted to be a lawyer but uh I think that's kind of out of the question now without a diploma a lot of things are out of the question in Quincy or any other American city towns like this were not built on schooling when AB Lincoln matched selfed education with Steven Douglas in Quincy Illinois few men went far in school later substantial families built lives and homes on thriving River Commerce and Industry quincies thrived with them at least some did others still struggle to raise their standards and now education through high school is their first hope among these people School dropouts reach their highest level 60% this is nearly twice the dropout rate in all of Quincy even with a diploma jobs are not easy to find in Quincy factories for those without a diploma jobs are still harder to find Al Barnard lives here in Quincy's Indian Hills it is low rent housing most of his friends here are dropouts many parents in Al's neighborhood did not finish school they don't understand schooling many are unable to help their children with school work there's no contact with teachers they don't speak the same language the environment favors the Dropout Al is a redhead when he was younger he was small for his age he had to learn make himself respected he is independent by Nature even obstinate again his environment encourages such attitudes he swaggers a little when he walks that too is in style but such attitudes even if desirable in his world outside school were hard to shed when the school bell rang the police in town know Al Bernard they know many dropouts Al was bright in his early school days school was easy for him too easy if anything but his older brother and sister quit school then his friends he found himself the last kid in his group bringing school books home at night the others seemed to have jobs at least some of the time they had money Al's mother tried to keep him in school do you think that Al sensed any difference between him and the other youngsters when he brought his books home yes I do I think that he uh would study of an evening and the others were out playing or anything thing and I think they kind of laughed at him a little because he studied so much m how did you feel you and your husband feel when Alfred finally quit school well we were pretty disappointed because we wanted him he was do so good and we wanted him to finish his high school at least did you ever talk to Alfred about the back in the times when he was doing pretty well in school did you ever talk to him about maybe going to college well no we never had discussed uh College this ber tell us a little about uh Al when he was a younger boy in Hall well he was uh good little boy he come in and take his naps when he was small and uh and of course when he got a little older by the he scrapped around and played with the neighborhood children there and they had he had a lot of friends and uh of course he went to school down there and the boys and girls had come to the house to play and was he a pretty Scrappy kid well yes he was and all the little neighborhood boys like to come down to see how tough he was he was willing to show them was he yes he he took them all on in Quincy Al Berard attended the Baran Elementary School in this school the dropout rate runs over 50% Al was the kind of pupil teachers remember morning Mrs Spring good morning do you remember Alfred barard I remember Alfred barard very well do you recall these comments that you made on his fifth grade report I have never taught a nicer boy than Alfred he seems almost perfect in everything he has an excellent attitude and is very Cooperative he has unusual talent in drawing I hope that he will always work at it because I am sure it'll offer him much in his future what can you tell us about Alfred when he was here in the fifth grade Alfred was very energetic he was intelligent he always uh had his work finished before the others he was a rather aggressive type of a boy but uh in this room he always uh put it to a good Advantage did you at that time have any indication that he might not finish school no I had none whatsoever he enjoyed School in enjoyed everything about it his behavior Oh I thought he was a wonderful child I I was very fond of him and he was no trouble in the classroom Educators in Quincy and everywhere looked for ways to meet the Dropout problem and are just beginning to find the answers superintendent Lester Lidle principal Roland Brockman of Senior High Dr Ronald Clark of junior high and his assistant Brant Crocker some of the causes of draff out I would think probably the primary consideration at the moment is the inability of the kid to feel that the school is where he wants to be now this can be achieved in many manners or is is brought about in many ways I think the uh the economic level the socioeconomic level from which he comes is a very important contribution to this most of them come from the lower third I would say that we find people uh the typical draft out would be a kid who comes from a home where there's not a lot of money and uh among Associates you'll find many kids who are associating with boys and girls who have not considered school as important as they maybe should and have draft out as a result of that uh the Friendship is a very important thing I think another thing is the lack of success I think if a youngster is succeeding he tends to stay in school but if he's failing that discourages him and he tends to drop out if he has one thing he enjoys doing he'll put up with a lot of wear and tear on the others to to enjoy the one of course I I differ with you a little Mr clker on the economic level while I think economics has a lot to do with youngsters dropping out of school I think it's their Associates and their friends that cause them to drop out more than the economic level I I have a feeling that uh the youngsters do about as well in school as their parents want them to do we have youngsters from the low economic level who are very successful students in our high school but their parents I think have given them encouragement and I I think parental problem as far as dropouts are concerned this may well be I I do think however that we as school people uh must do everything we can to see that this condition is alleviated I think that we can uh in instill in parents uh more positive attitude by our own actions I think this can be an important part of it I think that's right and I know that this past year or two years we sent these counselors into the homes to visit the uh the parents before the youngster comes into school one of the first contact with the parents in the school has been a friendly one I think we're doing a better job holding youngsters in school than we did before I wonder if we could talk for just a second about a specific case here's a here's a young fellow by the name of Alfred Barner who in fifth grade had comments like this on his report card I have never taught a nicer boy than Alfred he seems almost perfect in everything in sixth grade uh Alfred continues to do good work he is an excellent student I believe that Alfred could do anything and I hope the best of opportunities will open up for him in his life straight A's s's all the way through uh 6th 7th 8ighth grades ninth grade a little drop off 10th grade out of school and what what what are the causes of that would you say I don't happen to know Alfred's case personally but I would say to you that it probably is a people with whom he became associated with during the summer between his freshman and sophomore years it's a very dramatic change there was a day when the boy really wanted to do things in school I'm sure of this but uh I don't I don't feel like the school uh contributed toward to his uh pulling out of school I don't know what Al would say I frankly don't know what he how he would react to it but I I know I know his friends and his friends are uh are good people but they aren't essentially interested in the same things that Alfred was once interested in and I think uh today uh has pretty well joined him in terms of his interests uh uh although he he I know he recognizes uh uh the uh the thing that he has done and I'm I'm sure that in many respects wishes that he had done uh things differently I'm sure yeah one specific thing that he points to quite often is um a skipping school episode which resulted in a lecture given by a teacher in class uh directed at skipping school and everyone in the class he said knew that the teacher was talking about him and this embarrassed him and he got mad but I I'm sure this teacher in in her own way or in his own way I have no idea what it would be uh felt that she was doing the right thing this is this is I've got to help this boy see that it's important well we is we as teachers BR don't you think do do the same with us students as we do with our own youngsters when we discipline them we don't know whether we've used the right tactics in disciplin youngsters I have disciplined my own daughter and sometimes I think I was successful and sometimes I know I did the wrong thing but I did did what I thought was best at the time and I think that's exactly what teachers do they do what they think is best at the particular time now speaking of this case I think we must admit that there's one place where the school may have been an error I don't know about this but unless I think he dropped out at the end of his sophomore year and didn't return in his junior year now I'm not sure that we sent a representative of the school to his home to see why he didn't come back to school and I think that's one of the spots we must be sure with all these dropouts that we know why and that they have a home visit by some member of the school staff before the Dropout is official but I think there should be in every case of every Dropout a final summation of what we've done and what we've tried to do to make it a part of the record English teacher Margaret fiser found Al a good student in 10th Grade but he didn't complete the year I was never able to really figure that out now um was awfully short for his age and on numerous occasions he would indicate to me that he felt that he was the butt of jok and I think he hovered a lot of resentment against perhaps his own home background how's history teacher Arthur Cox uh I would like to say that Al had just a little bit of a feeling that the world was against him I think that he felt that people weren't on his side geometry teacher John Parks can't explain it I have no idea other than the fact that he was absent quite often he was skipping school I presume that to be the case yes do you have any notion of why he quit school I have no idea there wasn't any one reason why I quit school there was a number of reasons and maybe I could have did things different but I think if someone outside of my family and friends had come to me they might have been able to straighten me out but this never happened in Senior High nobody ever came to me and says Al I want to talk to you grades are dropping so I figured they didn't care he it was hard to get next to I would try to talk to him explain to him what he was doing his SCH work he just simply didn't have any interest in school I'd like to get up the nerve to go back and do it again only do it different this time I felt kind of awkward at Senior High all the people were different I didn't feel right as I did in junior high I was the last of my age group to quit I mean yeah I I I took it longer than they did I worked harder than a lot of them did and uh when I come back at week after skipping well you could kind of feel at like well you know I knew this was going to happen and he's like all the rest of them so I just sat back and quit trying I felt like they know where I'm from so here I am you can't do good work if you don't like to do [Music] something if you don't like a teacher in school you can't possibly do good work for that [Music] teacher well seems to me that if you're in a low income neighborhood such as I am that people your reputation may not too be good may not be very good I mean as a group and they like you're going to school they know where you come from it seems like that they know what they're going to expect of this guy is from so and so he's not going to do too good of work and uh I think that's that's that's a wrong way to feel about it if I went back to school I'd take the hardest things I could take just to show people that coming from that neighborhood I could do just as well as anybody that's got all they need and the rest of them could be just like [Music] me the fact is that Al Bernard with an IQ of 118 is a brighter boy than most who drop out of school a more talented boy yet with all his gifts he was not able to withstand the pressures of the social and economic life that surround him and how much harder it is for the others who are not just like him Arthur Lee Jones was Al's principal at Baran Elementary School well Alfred uh came here I believe in the fourth grade and was here for one year uh after I became principal here Alfred was one one of the boys that we have always been concerned about due to the fact that he had we thought exceptional aptitude in many fields yet in spite of that aptitude uh eventually dropped out of school a terrible waste I feel actually that uh in a measure the school was to blame for that I have a feeling that uh had we completely developed the potentialities of this boy that he would have had even more success at the junior high school level and perhaps at the senior high school level Alfred was um a fine artist fine athlete very good student all the way through evidenced uh great leadership and I've thought about him many times as a matter of fact did contact Dr Clark the junior high school concerning him on numerous occasions we uh I think could have utilized many of his potentialities to a greater extent and perhaps have helped keep him in school of course that's speculation on my part because uh it's already happened it's already happened says principal Lee Jones but he hopes it won't happen to children like these they are just now starting in Al Barnard's footsteps through Grammar School Mr Jones and his teachers know more now than they did a 10-year study by the Quincy Youth Development commission shows that the roots of Dropout begin early even in kindergarten one way to change the pattern is to spot potential dropouts before The Twig is bent to correct maladjustments to make school happy and productive and see that it stays that way much of the burden of Dropout weighs on the schools for dropouts past and future welfare secretary Abraham riov says one/ half of America's youngsters between 16 and 20 like alen his friends are jobless he calls it a national tragedy says schools must revise their programs for vocational training the public must be willing to pay for such training and for better teaching and counseling at every level a lot of times I wish I was back at school wish I was doing something I mean you get gets monotonous doing the same thing day after day which is nothing the days are long they may become longer there's little difference in the shape of time when it's wasted perhaps Al will go back to school perhaps he can swallow his pride and associate with students younger than he return to a discipline now 3 years gone go back to a status which most of his environment considers kid life it's a difficult challenge Al is the product of his own world if the schools have failed him in not holding him his world has failed him in not giving him reason to be held and we have failed both of them still we aim our education at that bare 30% which will go on to college and offer little of interest to those who will not if we are to hold young people in school this must be changed nor can we look upon all schools as being equal for they are not they are the Gathering point of the problems of the neighborhood the greater the problems the more help we will need to give them one thing is certain our future is more linked to the AL barnards of this world than to the satellites which a few in our society are producing societies are collections of individuals none can be wasted certainly not a million a year our high school [Music] [Applause] dropouts [Applause] [Music] I