This is the first part of an ongoing analysis of the American high school dropout. The author proposes that educational leaders in the U.S. have become obedient cogs to a neoliberal funding machine, finding it better to punish the dropout than to care for her. However, the author also proposes that this accounting for the outcast--the one who stands out from the group--is part of an innate, unknown pull in Us All, that manifests in myriad forms over time. The objectification of the school dropout is another link in that historical chain of human behavior and participation.