Educationally Deprived Youth

The educational gap between the educated and fully utilized and the undereducated and underutilized is greater than at any period in history,” according to the Report of the Joint USDA/NASULGC Extension Study Committee. The Committee states that Extension must give increased attention to the underutilized, the less advantaged. This group, including both youth and adults, is identified as one of tow key priority groups for Extension in the “quality of living” program area. However, the committee makes it clear that it views Extension as an educational agency, not a welfare agency. If Extension, then, is to deal with disadvantaged young people in an educational sense it will be necessary to understand more clearly their nature and potential. Even though most of the evidence on educationally disadvantaged youth is in relationship to formal schooling, these insights may be more specific to Extension type efforts than to the journal classroom. This possibility is revealed by the analysis developed in this paper.