Teen-Age Reconversion

And by the way, if you hate to go to school,

You may grow up to be a mule.*

Ditties like this were being sung to teenagers all over the U.S. last week. In cinema houses throughout the land, Bing Crosby addressed some 40,000,000 Americans (via a movie short), urging that high-school youngsters go back to school this month. Frank Sinatra wrote a syndicated newspaper appeal. Superman, the Lone Ranger, the Quiz Kids, the Air Forces' General H. H. Arnold, the Marines' Lieut. General A. A. Vandegrift chimed in. The U.S. Government was conducting the biggest back-to-school drive in history.

Washington, with active local help in 32 states, was trying to stem an alarming migration from the schools to the factories. In the last three years the nation's high schools have lost 1,000,000 pupils to wartime jobs. Of the 5,000,000 youngsters taking summer jobs, each fall between 300,000 and 400,000 have failed to answer school-opening bells. The campaign was the idea of the U.S. Children's Bureau, which had become disturbed at increasing violations of child-labor laws (New York alone had an estimated 125,000 illegal workers), industrial accidents to children, job-hunting young wanderers.

Some skeptical educators doubted that the ballyhoo would lure many youngsters back to school. But there were signs last week that the back-to-school movement would soon be helped by factory layoffs and the growing realization among youngsters that the war would not last forever. Some field reports:

Houston. The Humble Oil & Refining Co., Texas' largest oil firm, made all its young workers sign an agreement to go back to their classes. A group of high-school boys and girls stumped the city. Said a 17-year-old as he quit his job: "I go into the Navy around Christmas and want to get in one more season of football."

Chicago. In spite of the campaign, a city school official estimated that high-school enrollment, already down 18,000, would drop another 8,000 lower this fall. More than 80% of Chicago's high-school boys & girls over 16 work part-time after school. Said Dolores Sujak, 17, getting $27 a week full-time at Western Electric: "I didn't like school very much. This is essential work, and besides, there's a future."

Indianapolis, whose aircraft plants have begun to lay off workers, reported that a back-to-school trend had set in. Reason: the laid-off youngsters preferred school to jobs at lower pay. Said Marion Miller, 17, quitting his job as a movie usher: "Most of my friends are returning to school and I want to go back, too."

Los Angeles. Here the back-to-school movement (spurred by talk of cutbacks) has gained such momentum that school officials hastily halted their campaign. Said Lockheed's Henry Alfred Labaqui, 17, as he returned to school: "I've been working next to some of those clucks who didn't finish school, and I don't want to be as pebble-brained as they are."

* Copyright: Burke and Van Heusen, 1944.

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