Hanging in and Dropping Out

An examination of the ego identity of "at-risk" high school adolescents in order to determine the role of schooling in their lives. The author asked a number of high school students to tape record dialogues between themselves and their peers, to see how these students viewed their predicament. The book addresses such factors that contribute to dropping out as economic forces, peer and family pressures, sex, drugs, pregnancy and the inability of teachers and students to create a meaningful system in which they can function together. The author shows, through extensive quotation from the interview data, that the present high school system is the wrong place for these children at the wrong time in their lives and offers some suggestions on how to make schools the right place for them.