Who Cops Out? (1970)

who makes it and who doesn't make it it seems a game like a trick of Fate but really it's more than that the best Time of Your Life the years from 15 to 18 happy time swinging time Blossom time you'll never be this pretty again you'll never be this sharp again this is the youth that poets sing about that playwrights praise that painters love to draw this is adolescence the best time of your life says who say adults say people who can't remember the pain of adolescence the doubts the indecisions the fight against Temptation the courage that it takes to take one step after another into manhood or Womanhood today more and more young people are running into trouble part of it is luck part of it is Circumstance the breaks the people you happen to know but a bigger part seems to be something inside you your own thing kids do have some say in what they make of themselves more to say in fact than they think how much is Choice how much is Chance why stick with the system or why cop out what part of action is accident what part has been thought out with a cool sharp eyed logic of [Music] Youth aren't you frightened why should I be frightened babies are born every other second but you're still a kid you're still in school so what my grandmother had two kids by the time she was my age well she was married wasn't she what difference does that make in a delivery room well she had someone to take care of her and to take care of the baby I'll be all right what about school and all that so what all they can do is kick me up besides I don't think I'll pass English to see her anyway what about the boy will he marry you who wants the 16-year-old husband but you must like him well I liked him but I don't want to be married to him then why did you get pregnant well I didn't do it on purpose did I but you know about the pill so I didn't happen to have it it's not cheap you know does your mother know yet no but she will and maybe she'll find out that she can't keep pushing me around what do you mean well that's what makes a grown-up woman isn't it making love having a baby it's not learning math or writing an English composition and at 16 year old enough to be a woman maybe it wasn't an accident well how do I know what it was some people don't want to know why they do certain things they'd like to call it luck or accident so that they are not absolutely responsible for their troubles others can face reality Hey Man Nice play how long was your pass about 40 yards I guess that's pretty good for a school boy not nowadays I can do better do you like football I love it I just live for it how do you like cool I hate it what do you mean well my grades aren't very good I just about scraped through then why are you here well like I said I drop out I don't play ball so how do you get through your courses well I have to work a little harder than the other kids so I hire a tutor in math that's my worst one what does that cost you about $5 an hour and they work for a Furniture mover on Saturdays is playing ball really that important to you sure man it's the only thing I'm really good at well I just be another dumb CL in the school I see what you mean when you discover a strength you never know where it will lead you this boy is being pulled into Life by his muscle why not hi Bill how you doing not bad man not bad is it better than School you must be kidding no teachers on my neck no kids laughing at me plus I get a1ar 65 an hour how much was your take-home pay last week about $48 and I'm getting a new car next week can you really afford it hell man I'm just beginning you don't think I'm going to stay at a$1 65 I want to get to be a mechanic some of those guys make as much as $7 an hour why'd you drop out couldn't you learn faster going to an automotive trade school nah I don't like school never did not since I've been in a bunch of bras telling you what to do how to do it you feel like a baby all the time I'm no baby I'm 16 I can do a day's work I'm a man well it's hard for a man to live on $48 a week I told you I'm going to get a raise the boss promised me one when I first started is he going to get a raise get a raise hell no he's not going to get a raise he won't even have a job I'm looking for somebody now to replace him what's the matter what's the matter well he just can't count he's no good at figures can't make a charge slip out properly can't you help him with the figures hell I can't help him with the numbers if he couldn't learn in school with a professional teacher there's nothing I could do from some weaknesses come through to plague you forever and ever the earlier you can begin to do something about them the better off you are you can't cup out of everything do you hate school too no not especially going to be a doctor maybe who knows don't you know what you want to be man I'm only 16 my brother's 19 and he hasn't got the faintest he's in college even why College if he's not headed for a career that's the trouble with everybody today I don't understand well everybody thinks of school like it's just a place to get a job you mean school has become a kind of a training program exactly or earning the right to get in a rat race like a license to work in a factory or in an office well what's the matter with that who needs it it's bad enough that you have to do it when the time comes like going into the army then why do you say school is okay because I'd be bored to death if I wasn't learning anything but aren't the courses boring sometimes when the teachers aren't interested really or the textbooks are stupid or badly written I mean the stuff you have to learn you must be joking what's boring about learning something new what's so dull about a French novel or reading Shakespeare or doing a physics experiment or playing a math game game what else can you call a trag problem it's like a puzzle you make it sound like fun it is sort of fun if you're not sweating about it why do you suppose more kids don't enjoy school maybe they do but you don't expect them to admit it do you you don't think I would if I was on the air yet that's what so many youngsters complain of most boredom the phrase is there's nothing to do it was boredom that brought Jane all the way from school to this room in San Francisco wasn't it Jane I don't know exactly I just had to get away can you remember why can I everybody was hassling me my mother and my father my kid brother it was hell what was bothering your parents this I think I was some sort of dope atct or something well adults are rather frightened about any narcotics I'll say they don't know the difference between scagg and speed you know you can't get hooked on grass that's what some doctors say at least not in the same way they get addicted to heroin have you ever tried LSD once but I didn't like it I had a bad trip that one really scares me you could really flip out in that how did you get started on grass just to pass the time it was such a drag back in Mountain Grove you know go to the flick watch the tube go get a soda that was it how about sports or Hobbies I'm lousy in sports and I'm just not a Knitter by temperament what do you do up here friends parties it's a different scene what do you do all day not much I sleep late what else are you on beside the grass speed once in a while when I'm really down it helps me forget what do you want to forget George mostly I guess George he was the boy I was living with he left because things were getting too serious between him and me he wanted to be free don't you want to be free yes that's what I'm here but but but not this free there is no single answer but in every life a decision is made and for every negative decision there is a positive alternative often it is hard to know which is which sure adolescence can be the best time of your life but it is also the time when you are most easily tempted to give up and throw it all away to hurt yourself before the world hurts you it's a time when you need common sense and some confidence in yourself growing up is a tough [Music] business e