Student Profiles

Five Who Dropped Out

There were five students who dropped out of the class before the end of the semester: Adam, Hank, Horace, Pat and Ron. Of these five, I interviewed Adam and Horace, but not the other three who were less available.

Adam

Background Information
Adam was a thirty-six year old First Nations man who first registered in the Dover College ABE program three years ago. He was married to Jill, a student in the Native Indian Teacher Education Program (NITEP) at Dover campus. Adam told me about his wife's program the first day I came to the Fundamental class. He lived with Jill and her four teenage children. He has worked as a security guard, but his main source of income at the time of this study was income assistance. He said he received considerable family encouragement to attend ABE.

About his public school experiences, Adam said, "[I had] a lot of anger that I couldn't do the work, frustrated, and I was mad at myself that I couldn't do the work." He said he spent a lot of time in his public school library, avoiding the classroom. Adam was ambivalent about attending the ABE program. "It's kinda mixed up for me, school and job. I want to come to school and then no, I want to look for work. I'm stuck between school and a job, eh? Last summer I was missing school, eh? Like school days I was working, so I miss school." He also found group discussions boring and he objected to the new combining of levels one and two in this large combined Fundamental class. Adam's sister-in-law, Pat was also enrolled in this Fundamental class.