The Dropout

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 1962

Creator: Affiliated Film Productions.

Complete Record: Early 60s informational film about American boys and men who never completed high school, and as a result work low-pay service jobs to make ends meet. Group of young people discussing working and the daily grind. Shots of young high-school drop outs pumping gas, bagging, groceries, and manning other working class positions. The film proceeds to explore the underlying symptomatology behind a high-school drop out’s decision to defect from the education system. The film turns to several vignettes of a drop-out’s troubled childhood: arguing unsupportive parents, ridicule from teachers and students, lack of self-confidence, &c. From WorldCat: A dramatization about a youngster who leaves high school without graduating is used to show how a community, through remedial reading programs, work-experience programs, and other educational activities may tackle the problem of underachievement.