---
title: Don't talk out of school
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-talk-out-of-school-1941/
description: 'Black-and-white security poster: a uniformed serviceman speaks (''I just heard that.......'') to a man seen from behind.'
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Don't talk out of school

[![Don't talk out of school, 1941 US poster: Black-and-white security poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-talk-out-of-school-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dont-talk-out-of-school-1941.jpg)

# Don't talk out of school

Black-and-white security poster: a uniformed serviceman speaks ('I just heard that.......') to a man seen from behind, before a small flag-topped schoolhouse. Text warns that casual conversation may be vital information to others and that 'big ears are always waiting'. The technique is faint here: a mild fear-appeal resting on the idea of unseen listeners, with no enemy shown.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
DON'T TALK
OUT OF SCHOOL
I JUST HEARD
THAT.......
SCHOOL
TODAY MORE THAN EVER BEFORE IT IS IMPORTANT TO GUARD
CAREFULLY WHAT YOU SAY EVEN TO YOUR CLOSEST FRIEND.
CASUAL CONVERSATION TO YOU MAY BE VITAL INFORMATION
TO OTHERS.
DON'T TALK OUT OF TURN. BIG EARS ARE ALWAYS WAITING
AND EAGER TO HEAR WHAT YOU SAY.
```

[← Don't: 1. Talk loosely to strangers 2. Spread rumors](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-talk-loosely-spread-rumors-seagram-1941/) [Don't talk out of turn! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-talk-out-of-turn-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)