When Silent Knowers do take their first steps toward literacy development, they may find their attempts actively blocked or resisted by family members. Even significant support from literacy educators may not be able to neutralize the effects of escalating abuse or violence with which a spouse or domestic partner may react to a learner’s efforts. At one point before I started the creative writing class, women in the support group discussed the therapeutic benefits of keeping a journal. The first concern for a few women was how to find a secure place to hide a journal from their husbands or partners, a concern echoing the account of one of Horsman’s (2000) literacy educator correspondents:

I have known students whose husbands or partners insist on reading all their notes, or insisted that they only take courses with female instructors, monitor who they talk to…if they were seen talking to a male student it would be reported to them. They make it difficult or impossible for those women to feel strong. (p. 130)

The doubts Silent (or Silenced) Knowers harbor about having sufficient ability to learn and the multiple interferences they experience in resuming literacy efforts suggest that not many who women who are completely Silent Knowers will pursue higher education.