is another high school dropout boys and men's jobs not good jobs of course but jobs with paychecks that combine old jalopy or pay for its gas or cover the tab on a big saturday night they are not bad boys these dry pots not delinquent not hurt not yet that is they may not even be stupid or backward or lazy this is pete and i spoil as a matter of fact just one of almost a million youngsters who didn't make the grade at high school last year what makes a school a casualty list is hard work and they all might be doing in the classroom right now what makes him trade english math history science for a broom and a dollar ten an hour why is a drop out of school people in many american cities have been asking this question checking cases like this one doing research thinking hard about so terrible a waste of youth so big a leak in our manpower reserves so great a failure in our educational system but the reasons why a third of the students will leave school without diplomas are not simple you can't put all the blame on the individual pupil or his family or on our schools or on our economic or our social system many hidden forces may be pushing this jack or that jail to the point of giving up dropouts educators have found just don't happen overnight they take even in those years way back joe was in trouble in the classroom he had a pretty good head for figures but you can't be any good in the arithmetic if you can't read the problem with someone else i could come up and help us yes over the age of ten joe was already starting to become a failure in terms of the school situation he didn't like the kids who showed him up so easily he didn't like teachers who seemed bent on making a fool of  not all his classmates were bright but if they could read they could get along many of them needed more help than they could get in the overcrowded classroom quite a few were working well below their intelligence level they all needed encouragement and higher standards to push them t their real learning potential but there was no time for individual teaching at least they could read they had the key to the door of learning but children like joe just found in a sea of dancing letters that wouldn't shape themselves into words and sentences if joe had lived in another city he might have found his way into a remedial reading class like this one for many children have trouble translating the written word into sound and meaning today most schools provide special help for such children most of us caught the knack of learning to read early and easily we never think of reading as a complicated function of i care speech organs brain memory and motivation but for those who have trouble and any one of these areas learning to read is a formidable process a better painful struggle there must be somewhere around what word is this for all right when poor readers are helped they not only improve in all their other subjects but their attitude toward school and often to life is greatly changed the ability to read is a source of inner strength  power that no one can take away law did you just know what did you figure it out well now not exactly but he can tell he is lines because he and  to rule but these youngsters need the help that can only come from a specially trained teacher who has the time that it takes to move over one hurdle after the other who has the techniques and the patients that are required who is given the opportunity to work with each child as an individual problem think of a word that starts with the same sound that you can spell when kate remember this is a girl's name think of the word that the letter that starts kate broke the plate you remember the word we used to illustrate the beginning of plate something you like to do by the gate think of a word that starts with the same sound is but such help takes planning and budget like eighty percent of our school dropouts joe was a problem reader whose problem was never solved there are other forces that influence the small boys attitude toward school pressures in the outside world there are wonderful things in this world and if you happen to be poor but things seem more important than they small boy is not unaware of our pressures to have to get to own things joe's are affected more strongly than other children by such pressures because they are the have nots and their hungers are consequently sharper deprived of real love of security of the inner strength that comes from regular growth and achievement they are quick to accept the idea that the adult world is a grab bag and hand but grabbing is the quickest way of growing up that the bastions got it made take a look at this car and wonder what this set him back told me he got a wonderful deal on it thirty six months to pay to the joes aren't stupid boys what's good for the goose can't be bad for the goslings school they say is for kids by the time joe was fifteen he was being kept in school by law school to him was a battlefield the scene of a hundred lost campaigns was it any wonder he hated it even then he had no real friends no interests in common with the youngsters who were winning their individual battle he had no one to turn him around and guide him through the maze of his own confusion joe was alone and chose to spend much of his time alone cookie we used to call it joe and his friends call it go thing  the game may be pointless but at least you win once in a while