This study of approximately 50 early school drop-outs is an effort to find out why so many boys and firls leave school before they complete their high school course. We need to know the basic reason that prompt their decisions, not the superficial excuses that appear on many school records. The study was undertaken in the belief that when the causes are understood, they can be remedied through measures to provide adequate programs of student aid. If it is because of lack of interest in school, this, too, can be remedied through changes in school programs to make them mean more to more students. A country which has developed its industrial production and its scientific research to heights that would have seemd incredible 25 years ago, surely has the resrouces and the vision to create educational programs which will meet the varied needs, aptituteds, and interests of its many millions of children and young people. A democracy cannot be content with its public education system until all its children enter high school and until the number who graduate from high school approaches 100 per cent of those who enter.