Participant # 5

Background Information

Int: Are you female or male?
P5: Male.

Int: Married or single?
P5: Single.

Int: What is your current age?
P5: 18.

Int: How old were you when you joined ABE?
P5: 18.

Int: What was your age when you completed your goals?
P5: 18.

Int: Did you leave the program before completing your goals and then come back?
P5: No.

[From records Enrolled: 8/24/95 Exited: 12/95 (got GED) With program: 4 months]

Int: You said you hadn't studied for your GED anywhere else?
P5: No, not really. Here and there, but I didn't really set it up and go through a whole . . .

Int: You weren't involved in ABE in a different area?
P5: No. I wasn't involved in any other programs.

Int: Were you raising a family as you pursued your goals?
P5: You could say that, but technically, no.

Int: Were you married or single as you worked on your goals?
P5: Single.

Int: Were you working outside the home while you studied?
P5: No. I was working at home.

Int: You were working?
P5: A regular job? Yes.

Int: Employed at home and with others?
P5: Yes.

Int: You were employed at the place you were living at?
P5: Yeah.

Int: Were the places you studied rural or urban?
P5: Quite rural.

Int: At home or in a learning center?
P5: At home.

Int: How many tutors did you work with?
P5: One.

Int: What grade did you complete in school?
P5: 8th.

Int: What grade did your father complete?
P5: High school.

Int: your mother?
P5: High school.

Int: Did you have a prior negative school experience?
P5: Yeah, I did. I went to elementary school in Maine. I had quite a negative experience. I wan manufacturing a lot of it myself, of course. It just seemed that the way they dealt with education was more centered around discipline than it was about the learning, the material they were working with. I got picked on a lot and that distracted me from what we were there for. You could say it was negative.

Int: You didn't enjoy elementary school very much then.
P5: I enjoyed my friends. We would study together, but there was a lot that I found negative.

Int: Did you have a prior positive school experience?
P5: I consider just the basic skills that I learned, reading, writing, math, positive, because I use that today. Again, my friends that I made. I don't remember a lot from those days anyways.

Int: How was secondary school for you, positive or negative? Did you spend much time in high school? You went up to eighth.
P5: I spent a few weeks in school, but I didn't learn while I was there.

Int: Over all it was more negative than positive?
P5: That's why I dropped out.

Int: Were you diagnosed with learning disabilities while in school or did you feel that you learned differently than the other kids?
P5: I was not diagnosed officially as having a learning disability. Actually I was considered one of the brighter kids in the school. I let other things get in the way of that. I was an emotional basket case in junior high. I felt that I learned differently. I felt that everyone else was learning more by rote. Before I even knew what to call it, I felt that I learned more in a creative way and more hands-on. Everyone else was like a machine, just another number. I'm number five, right? It's hard for me to explain exactly how I learn differently. I always felt different from the crowd. I never got into big cliques. I always stayed on my own, anyway. So I had an original way of going about things.

Int: You felt the other kids were learning just by rote and you liked to do it more hands-on?
P5: I liked to just delve into it. I liked creative writing, where we'd all get together and brainstorm ideas. Not just like, you get up to the blackboard and "Two plus two is this, now repeat after me . . . " like that stereotypical public school teacher. I just liked the more creative style in learning experience.

Int: Would that be tied into learning for a purpose? Not just for the sake of digesting?
P5: Yeah. To further my knowledge. To enjoy what was happening while it was.

Int: Did you have any medical problems as a child? Eyesight, hearing, sinus . . . ?
P5: No. I was always very healthy. Not even allergic to anything.

Int: Did you require medication as a child?
P5: No.

Int: Did you require medication while you were working on your goals with ABE?
P5: No.

Int: Do you consider yourself more of an individual determined to set your own course or a follower?
P5: Definitely an individual. I tried to be a follower but it never worked out.

Int: Would you rather determine for yourself how to approach a task or be given guidance/assignments to show you how to carry it out?
P5: I like a mixture of both. It also depends on what the task is.

Int: In terms of learning, for instance, fractions: would you rather try them out yourself first, or have someone sit down and show you the steps and then go ahead and try it?
P5: I guess that I prefer to have someone go over it first. And then try it.

Int: In terms of a learning situation, like a school, educational. What about a different kind of task, like maybe building something? or you order something and you get all the parts and you put it together. Are you the type of person that likes to try it first and then if it doesn't work, ask somebody?
P5: Yeah. I would try it first. I feel like I have a mechanical aptitude. I'm trying to cultivate it. When I get a hold of something like that, I try to figure it out by myself. "Oh, this is connected to this."

Int: It depends on the task.
P5: Yes.

Int: Did you want your tutor to assign a set amount of work for you to do or determine for yourself what you could handle?
P5: It think it would vary. I didn't mind having assignments, like do this and this and this. For some people that's kind of intimidating. "Oh, I have these ten pages and I'll never be able to get through this." I didn't mind having an assignment. I can work well on my own too. When I'm motivated to do something for my own will. I like to work [unintell.] explore it.

Int: Would you like the freedom to go beyond the set assignment if you felt you could handle it or would you feel comfortable just stopping when the five pages or whatever were done?
P5: It would depend if I looked ahead and was curious about what I saw. If I was, I would just go on. I'd just keep doing it.

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Interview

1) What were your goals in joining the program?
P5: When I first set out to get my GED, I had no elaborate list of reasons. I just wanted to complete my high school education. For work, you have to have a high school diploma. Personal satisfaction.

Int: Your primary goal in joining ABE was to get your GED?
P5: Yeah.

Int: What helped you reach your goals?
P5: I would say support from my family and friends helped a lot, Jasmine especially. And her mother. Kept me going. It was an inner will thing. The material did interest me too. I liked to study, I like academic work. If something interests me, I'm going to follow it. I did set it up as a goal. "You're going to try to get the best score possible. You're going to participate in this, you're going to do this." And then you end up doing it.

Int: You did get really good scores.
P5: Yeah.

Int: Support was a big factor, then.
P5: Right.

2) What were the things that were most important in helping you to achieve your goals? (I think we just covered that. You mentioned inner drive, determination, your own will, and support. Of those two things, which was the more important factor in keeping you going? Were they equally important?)
P5: I would say it would be my own will. Anyone who's doing anything, that's what really counts. You can get outside support which would help immensely, still, it's you. You have to do it. I would rely on my own.

3) Did you ever think of quitting?
Int: What kept you going?
P5: I think I did because it's sort of a bad habit of mine. I get frustrated really easy, because I have kind of a short fuse. I didn't really think seriously about quitting. It was just something like, "Look you didn't even go to high school." I was just determined to fill that gap in my education and my knowledge. I didn't seriously think of quitting.

4) What things hindered your efforts to reach your goals?
P5: No, I didn't feel like there was anything getting in the way at all. I had plenty of time to study. I had my own space to study in. There were no obstacles for me.

Int: Transportation wasn't a factor? You had no problem getting to take the test?
P5: The fact that I didn't have my own car and that I had to rely on someone else, but it was no problem for them. So it really wasn't a hindrance and there was no guilt involved. I didn't feel like I was burdening them. We were making trips into town for provisions anyway.

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5) Once you saw you could make progress, did that keep you going?
P5: Oh, yeah. I didn't have as much faith when I started out as when I actually got into the work and saw that I was capable.

Int: What helped you to feel that you were making progress?
P5: Feedback from my tutor. Just looking at it myself, hey I didn't cheat, I did it all, I didn't look at any answers, and it worked.

Int: You felt like you were understanding the material.
P5: Yeah. Just that realization.

6) Did any of the things you were studying make you want to continue?
P5: I'm interested in the basic subjects. I felt it could be a little more rich. The material itself. I realize you're not working on a billionaire budget. I liked the passages in the reading skills section. I just like reading about science of any kind. That held my interest.

Int: What were those things?
Why were they important to you?
P5: There wasn't anything that really caught my interest. I didn't look at it that way, I just looked at it as a whole. To complete the test is the goal. It was very cut and dry. "Do this, and that's that." I would have tried my best whether I was captivated by this or not.

7) What part of how the program works helped you the mostflexible time, location, materials, other?
P5: I liked that tutors could come to your home. The flexible time. I thought it was a good setup.

8) What influence did your self-esteem have on your being able to continue?
(a) What was your view of yourself when you entered the program?
(b) Did it change while you were in the program?
If yes, how?
P5: I'm pretty hard on myself, at least everyone tells me that. I don't have very high self-esteem. Back then, I was feeling even worse. Completing it did improve my confidence. Definitely. I really try to ignore my self-esteem. Just carry out the task

Int: You did feel differently once you had completed it, though, compared to when you started?
P5: Yeah. I felt better.

9) Did you have any support to reach your goals while you were in the program?
If so, who or what?
P5: I would say Jasmine was really the soul . . . she would actually go over the material. I have other books, and we would go over the material together, actually sit down for a couple of hours and review some of this stuff.

Int: She was a person in your household at the time.
P5: Yeah.

Int: If a person, how did he/she show support for you? You said by actually going over the material and spending time reviewing with you.
P5: Yeah.

Int: Do you want to say more about that?
P5: I can just give you general answers. I had much support. I was very lucky in the group of people I was with. While I was up north there, people here were . . . I had so much support I couldn't get away from it.

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Int: Now that weve discussed a few factors, what do you feel had the greatest impact on keeping you going until you accomplished your goal(s)? Do you still feel it was your inner drive and your will to accomplish it?
P5: Yeah. It's my belief that in any act that someone does, that's what really counts. You couldn't rely on other people or some magical thing [unintell.] It's you. You have to do it. You know, like, just do it. It's true.

Int: I think it's wonderful that you did accomplish your goal. You have your GED. You have a job, and your life is taking off. Anything else?
P5: I want to thank everyone at ABE. Everyone involved in the process. I'm very grateful.

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