some potential dropouts find a lifeline thrown to them by chance danny knox was a contemporary of joe and like him a youngster who had reached ninth grade but no real links between him and school he wasn't doing well in class and he had no real reason for trying any harder he too hated the whole set up but then one day at the suggestion of an attentive teacher he decided to try out for the track squad the cinder path was to come down his road to friends to a sense of belonging in school to personal achievement and eventually to better classroom great extracurricular activity would help him to find his way back to the curriculum new out every track but you'll find ten chapters pretty remarkable for a new boy hanny's first time so track is something that you have to work real hard at that takes a lot of time and a lot of attention to detail but i'm sure if you want to be with us when we want you and we'll work hard live here a man here will be happy to have you among our group of high school thank you after school activities often help young people understand why they must study is often too abstract a goal for an adolescent but the promise of career and prestige as a tangible target to shoot at high school programs like this candy striper club show youngsters what their roles may be in later years roles that can only be played if their school work earns them the right to take their parts a few hours a week of adult responsibility can be a bridge to increased maturity today most high schools have specialist watch over the academic careers of the students school counseling still grossly understaffed in most of our communities is the best antidote to underachievement the strongest deterrent to drop out  school counselor is trained to watch for danger signs and to help in an emergency he sees the students as persons with individual problems are pretty good as a little bit disturbed when i receive this six weeks grade repor everything in general i guess isn't your boyfriend graduating this semester yes he might go back to the stage says have something to do with your decision have you talked this over with bob yes i have he isn't pushing me it out of course he doesn't want me to quit what are you going to do to get a job any kind of a job what could you do when i get a job in a department store or a waitress anything is that really the kind of job you want or not i'd like to be a secretary but i realize that takes education in a high school diploma do you think you could make enough at the jobs to live as you are now i think i could manage really of course you couldn't you're really after independence but i wonder if this is the way to go about it you might wind up with less freedom than you have now the stay in school a little while longer you'll be on the road to real independence if it only means getting the kind of job you want so i know you could get along with your parents if you really wanted to why don't you think it over a little while longer well i don't think there's anything about it i have made up my mind and i don't like school no one that i have like jo linda is anxious to grow up now not later she feels that leaving school means leaving humiliation and childhood behind a counsellor who understands adolescence and respects them can very often help them to change their minds reached the beginning of his eleventh year in the school system without counseling without any real ties to fellow students without motivation for the hard work about or coming as class to candy caps that first day of the eleventh grade was the day joe conason went out into the world dropped out into the world by the back door even then he wasn't sure he was doing the right things even youngsters who hate school have strong feelings owning them to the pattern of our system he wasn't breaking any law now but he felt as though he worked for a few sixteen year old boys are men they still need the companionship of other sixteen year olds they still need supervision  protection the grown ups world is frightening and challenging even when it is attractive all day long joe struggled for a decision he wandered in looked at the fascinating surface of the adults world wanting to get into it wondering how this was the day joe would always remember the day he started the endless task of trying to gain entrance into a strange world without a passport most schools in america today are trying to keep their joes from dropping out of surveys prove that without the high school diplomas the children of the age of automation are virtually doomed to a miserable life even the simplest opportunities that are open to  young people demand a fair amount of academic achievement and the schools are aware of the situation one of the helpful steps that educators are taking is the expansion of curriculum to fit the needs of individual students courses that involve the personal interest of the students are being added in the hope that they may motivate harder work in the academic subjects that are related to them and even if they fail to improve scholastically many of them are gaining skills and self confidence that will help them in the adult some schools have organized programs of work experience education and i've added a new specialist to the high school faculty this man arranges part time jobs for students who might otherwise become drop off he contacts local businessmen who can offer employment under approved conditions but he is an educator not an employment agent if the student cannot learn on the job it is not acceptable he found this building operation for instance the electrical contractor was willing to take on a junior apprentice with the idea of breaking him into the craft while he finished his school work works four hours a day at tasks that are constantly showing him why he must learn math a subject that almost cost him to flunk out now that he deals with numbers and fractions in his calculations the math doesn't seem so mysterious the work experience educator makes it his business to visit the building site at intervals to see that gus is right for the job and the job is right for gus for gus is still in school he spends four hours a day in class under a special program that will enable him to graduate along with his proper grade many of the boys and girls who are enrolled into this work experience plan show a considerable increase of interest in their entire school program there are many cases in which the attorney general in the public defender are up against each other in court they are more serious they try harder they do not have to be pushed to learn for one thing their confidence in themselves has been restored for another they d not feel that they are alone humiliated brand of those failures and thirdly they see some hope for their futures they are assured that they will enter the adult world by the front door little wonder they are interested in what goes on in that world but the four four plan as it is called does not operate impersonally the progress of the students is constantly checked by supervisor and counselor and we finally found him a job with mystical laris a and electrical contractor is he doing in the classroom nevertheless very good grades are coming up their instructor and he's getting along better with the other students and himself as well beginning to learn the practical value of what he's learning here as you've talked with his parents i talked to his parents just last week and their deal lighted with a change of attitude and course i'm very happy because it means you'll be able to graduate from school are joe got a job when he left school a year ago then he got a car souped up found himself a girl now at seventeen he's lost that job and to others the unskilled worker is the last to be hired and the first to be fired every new machine every business recession ends his employment once again and so joe will go on searching for jobs seeking the way and driving to nowhere when did he lose his way for joe and thousands and thousands like him there are no counsel no remedial reading classes no help at school or at home no help from community agencies and remember almost a million joes a year drop out of school in their last los for a little while joe still has a chance if his community the school his neighbors want to help if he himself wants to be helped he can still turn back and rediscover what he has given up the chance to learn if