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3. Not wanting anyone else to know
   
   
4. Not wanting others to see "how stupid I am"
   
   
5. "I'm too old to learn"
   
   
6. Contact cannot be reached - "is never there when I call". Contact does not return phone calls when name and number left. (colleges, school district, and "community based" program)
   
   
7. Contact insists on talking to the learner over the phone before making an appointment, rather than letting the spouse or friend of the learner make the appointment.
   
   In a specific instance, the wife of a potential learner, made the initial call to the instructor at a college. The instructor insisted on speaking to the learner. before an appointment could be made although the learner's wife indicated that her husband has a speech impediment and dislikes having telephone conversations. Nevertheless, her husband did call but the instructor was not in her office at the time the call was made and the learner spoke to a secretary whom the wife described as rude and "snotty" to him. Both the husband and wife wanted nothing to do with the college after this experience and could not understand why the learner's wife was not allowed to make the appointment for her husband.
   
   
8. Attitude among institutional staff:
   
   A woman vent to a community college to enquire about enrolling in a literacy program. She spoke to office personnel and was told that all their classes were full at the moment and also that before she could enrol she would have to be tested at some later date. The woman told me that the way the testing procedure was described frightened her and that the woman behind the desk at the college was curt and she felt embarrassed and humiliated - "I felt like a fool and went home and cried." She asked about financial assistance because she is unable to pay college fees, but couldn't understand what was said to her. about the procedure for applying. This woman also attempted to reach the contact person for school district programs but was not put through and couldn't get any information - "no one would help me.

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