Note: Some persons gave more than one response.

The "Work-related" category in Table 15 included two young men who got jobs and quit because the money seemed attractive at that time. The third man was older and married with children. He has a seasonal job and can only come to classes in the winter. He found the waitlist at the college frustrating because he was only admitted in January, but was ready to go to school in November. He is a Grade 6 dropout of the school system in another province. He had tried to attend ABE once before but then there were two barriers: the fees; and transportation, as he lives 20 miles out of town. He was a likeable person and said he was good with men. He was in line for promotion, but needed to improve his literacy skills in order to handle the paperwork. Another man was on shift work and had to quit because of it. One woman quit classes because she could not handle work, school, a two year old and her own fear. Her choice was the job.

The "Program-related" reasons were: individual difficulties with subject matter (math); instructional strategy ("too much on my own, I wanted more explanation and blackboard work"); and conflict with instructor on course. These three reasons were given by Native men. One had gone to a regular community college ABE course while the others had gone to courses designed for Natives on the reserves. The one who had been to community college felt more at home in the drop-in learning centre where he could get individual help. One of the other men was participating in a pilot program and really liked the program as he knew he was making progress. He proudly told the writer that he had learned to tell the time, and took off his watch to show her the proof. (He had only gone as far as Grade 4 and was not interested in school when he was young.)