There are two types of poor: the upwardly mobile and the stationary poor. The children of the latter present the greatest challenge to the public school system. Living in crowded quarters, poorly nourished, and given little preparation for the outside world, these children seem destined to fail. Their semiliterate mothers and fathers, if they have one, struggle to support a large family on welfare payments or on wages from irregular employment. When the stationary poor child begins school, he is ill-equipped intellectually, socially and emotionally to meet the demands of the middle class culture. His vocabulary is limited, he finds the classroom restrictive and feels inferior because of his social class. Neither his parents nor the school can provide him with the social and intellectual skills which he lacks. His feeling of distrust for authority generalizes to teachers, and truancy and delinquency often result. At the age of 16, he drops out of school, finds it difficult to get employment, and perpetuates the circle of poverty. (Author/LS)