THE STOPOUTS

This heading seems to best characterize the remaining withdrawals. These people had not “dropped out” forever. In nearly all cases, circumstances had forced them to stop coming to class and later they decided to return. Some of them seemed to have the habit more of "dropping in." Three of the women and eleven of the men were again participating or just about to participate in an ABE literacy class or tutorial arrangement. In addition, three of the men appeared to come and go when it suited them. These latter three had access to a drop-in learning situation. Two other men and two of the women said they would "go back" again. Thus 21 out of 24 withdrawals had returned or had the intention to return to ABE. If the three Doukhobor women and two of the learning disabled are added, the total of those who are participating or would return is increased to 26 out of the 34 total withdrawal sample.

The sample is no doubt "skewed" because the people were chosen for the writer and it was easier for instructors to contact people with a known history of dropout who were already in programs or about to enter. Nevertheless, this sample represents a slice of the ABE population and illustrates conditions facing the clients and practitioners. The agency people did not necessarily know that there was a history of dropout in their referrals and nothing was known about the self referrals until the interviews took place.

It is easiest to deal with the three of the 24 remaining withdrawals who said they would or could not go back. One was a man who had been in the program a number of years ago, but then had suddenly taken ill and was in hospital for two months. He has not worked for several years. He sits in a house "full of books" and watches TV. His wife works. His mother sent him to the interview. There was a problem in that he would not or could not open up. He seemed to have some kind of massive memory loss. He had not been able to read since his illness. He knew where to come for the interview, but said he did not know his way to the next town. It is likely he had been in a coma and suffered brain damage as a result. In that case some repatterning on an intensive one-to-one basis might be required. There was currently no tutoring service in his community.