Ask a kid why he or she drops out of school and most will tell you about a string of failed relationships -- with teachers or friends -- or they'll talk about how they had no friends. For them school isn't about acquiring knowledge or information; it's about creating a relational texture to their lives. PNS correspondent Fariba Nawa is a reporter for YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

For many kids, going to school isn't about acquiring knowledge, information, skills. It's about filling the biggest void in their lives -- close ties with other people, a sense of intimacy -- and when school can't provide that, they feel betrayed and spurn it like a bad date.

Saul, 14, for example, decided to drop out after his eighth grade graduation because of " teachers who didn't listen and showed disrespect." When he tried to defend himself, he only got in deeper trouble. Now he plans on getting a job and never going back -- "nothing can make school interesting."

Lester, 16, who immigrated to California from Nicaragua at the age of eight, lost interest in school when he joined a gang. "We went to parties and hung out," he says. To keep up with his gang friends, he cut classes so frequently he figured dropping out was his only option.

Yet both Saul and Lester talk nostalgically about elementary school. Going to class was fun, making friends was simple, teachers were attentive and concerned, they say. The relationships soured once they got to middle or high school.

Lots of kids who drop out of junior high or high school speak lovingly of elementary school. Up until the sixth grade Sierra, now 17, went to Catholic school where she learned discipline and hard work. Once she began public middle school, "there were too many students and not enough teachers. People were there to screw around. I got good grades ... but I couldn't sit there and pay attention when no one else was."

Melissa, 15, complains that her grades have slipped since going to high school but "teachers never ask why I'm not doing well." She remembers one day in particular when she was an hour late to driver's education class and the teacher told her to "get out of my class," telling her she was irresponsible.

"I know I have to motivate myself," Melissa admits, "but I wish I could get some help. I want to get good grades to make my mom proud."

Lester went back to school -- "gangs or no gangs" -- after he almost got shot. The trauma made him want to get a diploma and get on with his life. Even now, however, he wishes teachers would "talk to us more and be more patient when we ask questions." Simply putting stuff on the board and expecting kids to copy it, he says, makes education feel remote and abstract. Without the personal connection, he can't relate to what's being taught.

Sierra, who dropped out when she was 14 and got arrested for gang-related fighting, returned successfully two years later. She credits San Francisco's Youth Chance, a place where she says "teachers care, there are six people to a class, and you learn a lot."

At Youth Chance, Sierra wrote poems, became computer literate, prepared a resume and last spring passed the high school proficiency exam. "I forgot when the test day came," she recalls, "but my teacher gave me her car and the $40 test fee and told me to rush and take the test."

Today, she plans to go to a small college and study computer repairing.