We, the teen‑agers of this age, are faced with two alternatives at the age of 16. At that age, the state of Illinois allows the youth to quit school. Some teen‑agers feel that they do not need any more schooling when they reach 16, but when they carefully consider all the facts about quitting school, they may think twice about dropping out!

Recently there has been an increase in high school graduates going on to colleges. Because there are so many people going to college, the chances for a person getting a stable, well‑paying, and enjoyable position without even a high school diploma are very slim. Why should an employer hire an inexperienced, uneducated teen‑ager to handle a position which needs experience and education, when he can have a choice of many college graduates who are better suited for the job? The answer is that he will not! Consequently, the person without a diploma must look for an undesirable job which requires almost no education.

If a teen‑ager can realize that two more years spent in school in order to obtain a diploma is well worth the effort, he will certainly not drop out. When a boy starts work, he must realize that he will be working the rest of his life. That is quite a long time to be working in an unsatisfactory atmosphere, with an undesirable salary, and, most likely, insecurity.

Regardless of the many disadvantages of quitting high school, this is still a problem facing America. Somehow, today's teen‑agers have been misled about the business world. It is not as easy to enter as some teenagers think it is!