When I began to understand the extent of the isolation these women experienced I listened more carefully to what they were asking for that would address this isolation. I first thought that what the women "really" wanted was some sort of social group. I thought that perhaps a "kitchen table" chat, where neighbours gathered together to talk and discuss their lives, might be more useful to many women than participation in a literacy group because they spoke so enthusiastically about the social aspects of the program. But the conclusion that they wanted a social gathering instead of education does not challenge the assumption that education is not social but a solitary, individual process.

A social event alone was not what the women wanted. Many women spoke strongly about their fear of being exposed to their neighbours. Some of them also made it clear that even though many men object to their wives or girlfriends participating in educational programs, others "permit" them to participate on the basis that improved literacy skills will enable them to fulfill their roles as wives and mothers better. The women wanted both social contact and an educational event.

Not only would the social aspect decrease their isolation, but they considered that the confidence gained through the social contact with other women who shared the same problems, would enhance their learning. They would also have the opportunity to consider what might need to change to reduce the structured isolation of their lives.

The lack of social opportunities in their lives and in the lives of women generally discouraged many women. The literacy program cannot meet all the social needs women have, but it should incorporate elements of social interaction: discussion, student meetings and social gatherings where women can get together and speak about their reality. This will enhance the learning that takes place in the programs. In this way programs can provide a forum within which women can question their situation and challenge the social organization that isolates them in the home.

The social organization of the women's lives as girls, kept at home to help with the work of the household, also contributed to the later isolation of many women. They had experienced abuse in childhood, both in the home and at school. This had silenced them and they had become isolated from other children, giving them little experience of making friends. Maxine spoke of her isolation at home:

When I was a kid I had no friends. I stayed home and I helped with house- work... 1 didn't do nothing right. Boy, there was a yardstick right behind me. You do that or wham.

Mistreatment in school added to the solitariness and silence of some. Frieda described her experience:

I couldn't take the criticism of the teacher. He stood me up in class, I just couldn't do math at all. He used to call me retarded in front of the whole class of children and then they used to chase me around the school grounds when I went out for recess: "Hey, look at the dummy. Look at the dummy." And he put a dunce's cap on me every time he got a chance.

Maxine was also isolated:

At school I'd just sit by myself. I never bothered anybody. I always wished I had friends when I was a kid.

When these women describe themselves as "shy" during adolescence, they are describing a kind of silence. They are silenced at school and at home through threat or physical violence. Their negative interactions with authority figures defined and negated them. But these descriptions of "shy" focuses attention on the girls as lacking assertiveness, rather than on the situations and authority structures which silence them. The social organization of the school and home which some women experienced in childhood, contributed to their later loneliness and isolation.

Some of the women were also distant even from neighbours. Perhaps their lack of experience of friendship and their childhood poverty made them ashamed and afraid of being judged. They did not see neighbours as potential friends, but feared being talked about behind their backs. Maxine and Jean both describe this:

When you get to know neighbours you're all right until they more or less stab you in the back.