Trust, training, and the school dropout's world view

Abstract

The world mew of a group of “hard-core” school dropouts contained three major themes. First, they wanted to become members of the lower middle class and had relevant ideals. Second, their behavior and community ostracism made the possibility of achieving this status minimal. Third, although they had internalized middle-class ideals and values, their ideals were not integrated with the rest of their personality. They were ambivalent about these very goals and values, for “success” meant menial, boring work. For these reasons they mistrusted the training program and its staff. Either “success” or failure seemed like a blind alley.