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"Back to School" is an episode in the Hey Arnold! TV Series.

Synopsis[]

After Arnold finds out that Grandpa never graduated grade school, Phil goes back to school to get his grade school diploma. Grandpa tells him a story about how he was a good student in school, but when The Great Depression came, he had to quit school and get a job to help his family.

Plot[]

Arnold asks Grandpa to help him with his math homework, and initially he agrees, until Arnold tells him that it's long division. Grandpa promptly freaks out and goes out of his way to avoid Arnold, until Arnold corners him in the bathroom moments later. Grandpa reveals to Arnold that he never finished the fourth grade, but not by his own choice; The Great Depression hit, forcing him to quit school and get a job to help his family.

Arnold convinces his grandfather to go back to school, and Principal Wartz agrees to let him attend school at P.S. 118. Arnold is mortified when Grandpa ends up in his class and embarrasses him, but his classmates grow to like him.

Phil does so well in the fourth grade that Wartz moves him to the fifth grade; Wolfgang and his friends initially make fun of Phil, but he proves himself during a game of kickball and instantly earns the respect of Wolfgang and the other fifth graders.

Phil very quickly moves to the top of the fifth-grade class and gets promoted to the sixth grade; Upon arrival in the sixth-grade classroom, Phil finds that the other students aren’t as accepting as in the previous grades; A particularly large sixth grade boy intimidates Phil as soon as he sits down. Upon arriving home that night, Phil digs through his closet and finds his old leather jacket and adopts a "tough guy" persona. He intimidates the boy who'd harassed him the previous day and earns the respect of the sixth graders, but this time for the wrong reasons.

Phil begins to procrastinate on his work and his grades begin to slip; He begins hanging out with Connie and Maria, despite almost 70 years older than them, and takes them out to "sneak into" a PG-13 movie even though he is 81 years old and could get both girls into the movie without sneaking in. He drops a water balloon on an usher and then he flees with the girls; Later that night, Phil and the girls get arrested at P.S. 118 after Phil is caught spray painting "Steely Phil" on the school dumpster.

Principal Wartz calls Phil into his office the next day and tells him that he’s on the verge of being expelled; Phil blows off Wartz and pulls the fire alarm before leaving. Arnold later confronts his grandpa after receiving a phone call from Wartz, and Grandpa decides to change his ways and applies himself. He ends up passing sixth grade and receiving his grade school diploma.

Trivia[]

Grandpa Phil says that he left the 4th grade when the Great Depression hit, which was in October 1929. This is chronologically incorrect, as Grandpa is said to have been born in 1917, which would make 11 or 12 at the time of the Great Depression. It’s possible that Phil started later or was held back.

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