Hull, G. (1992). "Their Chances? Slim and None":An Ethnographic Account of the Experiences of Low-Income People of Color in a Vocational Program and at Work (MDS-155). Berkeley: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California.

A STUDY OF WOMEN, VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, AND WORK

• The Program: "You know Mr. Parker? Well, he'll get you a job."
• The Teacher: "Let's talk business, let's talk ladylike."
• The Employers: "I tell them the sky's the limit."
• The Workplace: "I'm hiring you as an hourly."
• The Students

My colleagues and I have attempted to study how people experience vocational education programs and what those programs, and the jobs that people get as a result of vocational training, have to do with literacy and current claims that American workers are illiterate. Although a great deal of research attention is focused on vocational education these days, much of the research that is done is quantitative and "top-down," judging, for example, the outcomes of programs as measured by dropout rates and job placement (Klaus, 1990). We chose a different path, focusing on people--rather than programs--and programs as they are experienced by people.

Employing an ethnographic approach, we used initial observational time, as well as previous research, to identify critical issues and key events, and then used multiple methods to focus on and study these issues and events. After relating ethnographic observations to the issues and key events we had previously identified, we returned to the field to verify findings. Built into the fieldwork, then, was a self-correcting cycle; whereby we collected data, juxtaposed it to our initial observations and theories, and returned to the field to test our emerging findings and collect further data.

As one data collection method, I gathered educational life histories from participants in the program--interviewing and audiotaping sessions about students' previous educational and work histories, their views about their future work in banks, and also their beliefs about the importance of literacy in work. These interviews usually lasted an hour or an hour and a half, and most of them were conducted at the vocational program with just the researcher and one student present, although I sometimes interviewed two people together. I also conducted follow-up interviews with most participants after they had gotten (and, in most cases, lost) jobs in banks. Additionally, in a few cases, I interviewed former graduates of the program, people who are presently working in banks. Some of these interviews were conducted again at the vocational program, but others took place in participants' homes. (Since the completion of this report, I have continued to stay in contact with the participants in the study and to interview them; I will report on this more longitudinal work at a later time.)

Complementing these interviews with students were extensive interviews with the teacher of the Banking and Finance program. Mr. Parker (all names are pseudonyms) was quite supportive of my research, spending many hours in interviews, representing me as a "good guy" to the students in his program, making it possible for me to interview on site and to do videotaping of training. He was also instrumental in helping me gain access to banks and bank personnel. He seemed to take my research as an opportunity to be reflective about his work as a former bank vice-president and now a vocational education teacher. Feeling rather unsupported in his community college, he viewed my interest in his program as an affirmation of his teaching. He said I was "putting words to his music," and he welcomed me and other members of our research group with unusual good humor and eagerness.

Additional data on the vocational program includes field notes and videotapes of classroom instruction. I observed lectures and discussions and, on rare occasions, was called upon to supply part of that instruction, teaching students what I knew about interviews, for example, or about writing résumés. I also observed laboratory sessions on machine calculation and simulated banktelling, and I videotaped in each of these settings.

My other interest was, of course, the employer's angle. Through the good will of Mr. Parker, I was able to interview and videotape the personnel manager of Bank of the Pacific, the primary employer of students from the Banking and Finance program. Mrs. Lavelle comes to the program regularly to test students and interview them for jobs as "proof-operators" (explained later), and I was able to videotape a number of these interview sessions. Along with several representatives from other local banks, Mrs. Lavelle sits on an advisory board to the vocational program. I was able to attend these advisory meetings and to interview some of the other personnel managers of local banks. When several students in the cohort I was studying failed the proof-operation test, I served as a tutor, helping students to analyze what was required by the test and to practice it. These sessions were audiotaped. I, too, took several screening tests for jobs as a proof-operator (which I, too, repeatedly failed) and was interviewed for a part-time job as a proof-operator in a different city.

Finally, I was able to visit the proof-operation center which serves many of the multiple branches of Bank of the Pacific and employs many of the graduates of Mr. Parker's program. There I interviewed the manager on two occasions, got tours of the center, and collected some of the documents proof-operators use in their work. My biggest regret about the research reported in this paper is that I did not get to spend as much time as I wanted in this center or in branch banks, nor was I allowed to videotape in these workplaces (cf. Darrah, 1990, who critiques the notion of a "grand tour"). Despite the intercession of Mr. Parker and my own multiple letters and requests, bank managers are wary for security reasons of letting people inside, particularly with cameras, to study how work gets done. (In a more recent project, my colleague Katherine Schultz and I were finally able to gain entry to a bank's data center and to use ethnographic methods to study the organization of work and the role of literacy in the performance of work [Hull & Schultz, in preparation].)

The Program: "You know Mr. Parker? Well, he'll get you a job."

The Banking and Finance program is part of Gateway College, an urban community college in the Bay Area of Northern California which serves mostly a minority population--African Americans (33%), Asian Americans (21%), Hispanics (9%), Filipinos (4%), and Native Americans (1%). In Banking and Finance, there are proportionately more African-American students, around sixty percent from 1988 to 1991; thirty percent Asian students; and one or two percent Caucasian. The program is "open entry/open exit," which means that a student can enter the program at any time and leave at any time--presumably for a job in a bank. There is not, then, a definite time requirement associated with the program, although a new session in Banking and Finance starts with each academic semester and, often, with summer school as well. For example, a student might come to the program, stay three weeks, and be sent to a job in a local bank. As Mr. Parker is fond of saying, many students already know most of what they need to know in order to get entry-level work in banks; at this point, they just require some polishing, some confidence-building. A few students cycle out of Banking and Finance when they and their instructor realize they cannot read well enough to pass the proof-operation tests recently instituted by banks as part of the application process. However, most students do stay in the program at least six or eight weeks before they are sent on jobs, and some stay until the end of the academic semester. A few repeat the sequence consecutively, or they attend the program for a while, go off for other training or work, then cycle back through. It is important to note that this is a short-term vocational program, and that it is not characteristic of efforts in vocational education to provide long-term instruction and to link that instruction to "academic" preparation.

Most of the students in the program--about ninety-five percent--are women. Some of the African-American women are older, have not worked or been in school for a while, and are hoping now to hone their skills and re-enter the workforce. Others are younger, nineteen and twenty or just out of high school, and often single parents of very young children. These women, too, are eager for a leg-up in the work world; they want to get off assistance and make a better life for their children. Most of the other students are young Asian women--Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino--many of whom still live at home with their parents. Some of these students are looking for part-time work to support themselves while they go to school or to supplement one job they are already working. There is also sometimes a sprinkling of Latinas, African-American men, and Asian men in the class.

Most students hear about Banking and Finance by word of mouth: "My girlfriend's brother and her cousin were in this program and they told me about it." Others say they were flipping through the college catalogue and saw the program description: "My finger got stuck on the page," as one student put it. No one says they have gotten into the program through high school or college advisement. When they do hear about the program, there is still a complicated registration process which stymies some. I have the impression that getting into the program is for many a hit-or-miss process.

Students enroll in Banking and Finance for many reasons and for combinations of reasons. For some it is one more certificate selected from the community college smorgasbord of possible vocations--another piece of paper, they say, to give them some insurance in an unpredictable job market. Others come because they are required to by some outside agency: They must show proof of enrollment to get government assistance, for example, or they have failed a military entrance exam and thus have to go back to school for some credits. For these students, banking is as good as anything else and actually more interesting and practical than many courses of study; this is true regardless of the fact that they sometimes say they do not plan on ever working in a bank. Other students come because they are pursuing an A.A. degree and think Banking and Finance will round out their studies in useful ways. For example, students have told us they want to open their own small businesses eventually--a child-care center, a hair salon--and they see the program as providing practical information on finance.

But the great majority of students in this program are there for another reason: because they have heard that at the end of the program you will get a job. As the instructor explained, and as I heard time and again from students, the draw of the program is the chance to work, and it happens like this:[3]

"I got a job."

"Where you workin'?"

"At the bank."

"How'd you get that job?"

"Oh I got that job through Banking and Finance. Yeah, you know Mr. Parker? Well, go down and see him, he'll get you a job."

The Banking and Finance program consists of lecture and discussion, in which the instructor goes over some fifteen "modules": Mr. Parker presents information on bank careers and opportunities--what are the jobs you can expect to apply for at a bank? He spends the most time on banking procedures and operations--how to open and close as a teller and the various customer transactions, like issuing and paying travelers' checks and opening new accounts. The course ends with interviewing techniques and employee-employer relations. Each of these lectures/discussions has a lab. Students practice telling, proof-operating, machine calculation, and interviewing; some of these labs feature characteristics of a currently revalued form of teaching and learning called "cognitive apprenticeship" (Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989).

Here, for example, are some snippets of talk from a videotaping in which Mr. Parker coaches students in a simulated bank-telling exercise. As some students are pretending to be the customers and others the tellers, Mr. Parker presides from behind the bank counter, pointing out errors in a nonthreatening fashion, helping students accomplish tasks they cannot yet do on their own, and telling personal illustrative stories from his collection of bank lore:

Mr. Parker: [calling out] Alma, she gonna steal some of that money!

Alma: I noticed that.

Mr. Parker: So get rid of it. Have you verified [laughter]? The first thing you do is put away the money. The hand is quicker than the eye. Do your cash in. Did you do your cash in? And, and you put it on the cash blotter. How much has she given you?

Alma: Two hundred and twenty-six dollars.

Mr. Parker: Okay, now put your cash in, and see, and put your debits and credits together. Teller stamp. Do everything [pulling away the savings account passbook]. This the last thing you do. Forget her [indicating the customer]. You do your business. Because the moment you hand her that book she gonna walk away.

Alma: Right.

Customer: I'm gonna have to check to see if she hasn't made a mistake, too.

Mr. Parker: Yeah, but the person I'm gonna come after is Alma. I'm not coming after you.

Customer: I'm coming after her, too! [more general laughter]

All of the activities--the labs and lectures--take place in an atmosphere charged with immediacy and real-life applicability. Constantly, the instructor relates whatever concept he is teaching to the world beyond the classroom, through stories culled from his own experiences in corporate life and through hypothetical examples of what students can expect to encounter in a matter of weeks as they stand before an irate customer who is insisting that you cash her check although she has no identification. In doing so, the teacher, who is African American, relies on characteristic black speech styles and speech events (Kochman, 1981), and he does so with great effectiveness for many of the students: "Mr. Parker, he makes this class interesting, he motivates me, he relates what we're doing to the real job," the students told us over and over again.

A large portion of time--a two-hour class each afternoon four times a week--is devoted to learning to use ten-key machines. That is, students practice the operation of calculating machines using a manual much like a typing book except with figures. Thus, they add and subtract columns of numbers and find their errors when they make transcription mistakes. The aim is first for accuracy and then for speed, for both skills will be required to operate the ten-key calculator on a proof-machine. Many students in the Banking and Finance program look forward to taking jobs as banktellers, but most of them go to work as proof-operators, people who with their left hand feed debit or credit slips and checks into a large machine the size of a refrigerator lying on its side, and with the right hand, key in the amounts of those slips on the ten-key calculator that is part of the machine. Accuracy is very important. As will be seen later, a worker's "incentive pay" is docked if he or she makes too many errors. Speed is paramount, too. Production is twelve-hundred items per hour--that is, each hour you must feed twelve-hundred slips of paper into the machine with one hand and key in the amounts with the other. If you do not make production, you will be fired, and if you do not exceed production--by processing sixteen-hundred or more slips per hour--you have no means of increasing your pay. The Banking and Finance program at Gateway College owns one ancient and often broken proof-operation machine on which students get to practice a little bit--probably less than an hour each during the entire program.

One more comment on the curriculum. The program included no instruction on reading, writing, or math--no "remedial" basic skills work--although Mr. Parker was concerned that sometimes students had difficulty doing the reading on the proof-operation test that was part of the banks' employment screening. He surmised that Asian students had the most difficulty because they had the most rudimentary reading skills due simply to second-language issues. A student would occasionally leave the Banking and Finance program and cycle back to a remedial literacy class in Gateway College, but this was a rarity. There did not seem to be much coordination among programs or at least not much student and instructor perception of such linking. If students did not have the reading, writing, and math capabilities they needed, they simply dropped by the way. Mr. Parker was especially skeptical of the usefulness of remedial classes; he said such programs stigmatized students and offered little in the way of practical help. But he was equally adamant about not wanting the responsibility for basic skills instruction in his program and had, in fact, stopped administering a standard reading test at the outset of each semester. Early on, in a discussion of the literacy required for the banks' screening tests, he told us that he did not teach reading:

Interviewer: Mr. Parker, you know what, this is a lot of reading.

Mr. Parker: I know it is.

Interviewer: This is a lot reading.

Mr. Parker: I understand that. Reading. I understand that, sure. If you don't read it, you can't understand it. If you can't understand what you read, how you going to master the program? And I don't teach reading. Do you follow what I'm saying?

Interviewer: Yeah. This is a lot reading to do that problem.

Mr. Parker: Of course it is. Of course it is. Reading with understanding.

Interviewer: And it's also very much like a test, you know.

Mr. Parker: It is a test!

Interviewer: I know. It's like a school test, you know.

Mr. Parker: Right, right. It's all reading. Reading, reading is the key. Understanding, understanding what you've read.

[20 Second Pause]

Mr. Parker: And I don't teach reading.

Mr. Parker later told me that the reason he did not teach reading (and writing and civics and math) was a matter of pride; those were not his specialties; those were not things he knew. He saw himself as an expert on banking and finance, not basic skills or literacy.

The Teacher: "Let's talk business, let's talk ladylike."

The official curriculum is one way of understanding the Banking and Finance program--an account, that is, of the textbooks and syllabi and the content and style of lectures and labs. But another way is to construct a sense of what the program means to its participants, including the teacher. Let us listen to how Mr. Parker describes the program, his role in it, and his relationship with his students. In the following excerpt Mr. Parker explains what he means by "polishing." Students already know everything they need to know when they come into my program, he claims; all they need is a little polishing.

I get- I get a student in my class,
I get a young lady in my class,
she is 19, 20,
uh, has worked part-time at various jobs and so forth,
uh, and I do what I call an eyeball assessment
and we sit and we talk:

Catherine, what have you done?

Why, I've worked at McDonald's

Why are you in this program?

I need a job, I need to go to work,
I need to take care of myself
and I've done some things,
uh, but I've had a lot of jobs
and they didn't last that long. . .

and so forth.

What can you do?

I've been a cashier.

Where did you work?

I worked at McDonald's,
I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken and QuickWay.

Uh, do you have a résumé?

No.

Have you ever had a résumé?

No.

Let's do a résumé.
I need to put you together on paper,
I need to look at you on paper.

So we do the résumé,
and I ask her to reconstruct her whole life work history,
show her how to put that in sequential order, last job first.
So she began to do that, and then I began to pull it out of her:

What did you do?

I worked at McDonald's.

What did you do at McDonald's?

Oh! I handled cash register.

What else?

Oh! I helped in the kitchen.

What else?

Uh, at the end of the day I helped my supervisor balance out the cash drawers.

What else did you do?

Sometimes I would take the deposit to the bank.

Aha! What else did you do?

Sometimes I was the receiving clerk when McDonald's come in with all of the the food and stuff for McDonald's, I, I'm the one that received it, I'm the one who checked it off.

What else did you do?

I helped the manager make out the the list for next week to, to, to order the merchandise for McDonald's next week . . .

Because normally when you get a person like that they've done more than that, they've been more than just someone selling hamburgers . . . they never, they never perceive themselves as being nothing but a hamburger seller and, and kinda, and that's sorta demeaning, in a sense, you know, everybody sells hamburgers. But then when I start pullin it out of them,

What did you do?
Did you ever go to the bank, make deposits?

Oh yeah, a lot of times I had to go to the bank and make deposits.

There's a certain amount of trust there,
they don't send anybody to the bank to make deposits.

And so, Mr. Parker helps students to "articulate themselves." He helps them construct a new image of themselves, a positive one, because everyone else has given them a negative one previously; "it's all been negative," he says.

The image Mr. Parker helps students construct of themselves is not just to build their confidence, though that is surely crucial. He is also aiming to help them construct an image that the corporate world will find palatable. Here, for example, is an excerpt from a class discussion in which Mr. Parker teaches students how to conduct themselves in an interview:

Mr. Parker: Don't sit down until somebody asks you to sit down. Don't take for granted that they want you to sit down. It's not that they don't want you to sit down, but that they have another office that they want you to go over to. So when you come in, you greet the interviewer. Always extend your hand, say "Good morning! How are you?" and wait for instruction. They're gonna normally say, "Please have a seat." Then that's when you sit down. And when you sit down-

Class [in scattered voices]: Don't slump.

Mr. Parker [scrunches his face]: Please don't slump! [General laughter] I mean, don't go to bed in the seat. [Pulls a chair over to a student] When you sit down [he sits down and crosses his legs], sit down nice and erect. [Stands up and goes over to Jackie.] Jackie, have a seat. You've just walked into the office. [Jackie goes to the chair] Have a seat, please. [Gestures to the seat with a ruler and Jackie sits down.] Okay. [to class] Watch her legs. [to Jackie] Sit down. [to class] Watch her legs. [to Jackie] How are you gonna sit?

Jackie: I can't sit like that the whole interview.

One kind of skill that is taught in the Banking and Finance program might be called "corporate literacy"--how to act, carry oneself, and speak in appropriate ways in the world of high finance. At one point, Mr. Parker described to me the way he shaped LaReisha, his most recalcitrant student: "Wow, wait a minute," he admonished her, "don't talk to me like that, let's talk banking, let's talk business, let's talk ladylike." He invents scenarios and plays them out for students, modeling the correct and expected behavior. Thus, he tells students what to do in an interview or how to react in particular circumstances--for example, if your boss asks you to wash the dishes in the bank's kitchenette: "This is just a part of the job that everyone will have to do sooner or later," he counseled, "so don't take offense."

Mr. Parker sees this socialization as a necessary means to an end--getting students off welfare, out of poverty, and into work. When I once commented to Mr. Parker that it seemed to me that students in the program were learning how to struggle, he quickly responded that, no, he was teaching students how to survive, and he went on to defend his approach this way:

I, I tell my students
I'm, I'm, I'm not concerned with theory.
To hell with theory.
I'm a practitioner,
I don't want to teach no theory.
If you want theory, go up to Cal.
I'm teaching practical application:
pay the rent, and a loaf of bread,
that's what I'm teaching.
Because you gonna need
some money to pay the rent and a loaf of bread,
and my students understand this.
Don't talk to me about no theory,
don't talk to me about "Much Ado about Nothing," Shakespeare. If you wanna do that, fine, that's good to do,
and it's fine to know all of the sonnets and all of the plays by Shakespeare.
You can't sell it at Safeway.
When you go to Safeway,
they don't want to hear the sonnets,
they want to know if you got two dollars and fifty cents for a loaf of bread.
Those students understand that, Doctor,
they understand it a hell of a lot better than me and you do
'cause they've gone through it.
That's right, when your daughter wakes up in the morning sneezing
and's gotta, gotta a fever of 110,
you've got to get her somewhere,
and if you don't have insurance
they're gonna send you to Highland [Hospital]
and you're gonna stand out in the hallway.
Is that what you want?
If you don't, you better listen,
you better balance the sheet so you can get a job,
and, and my students understand that.
My . . . Brenda, you've interviewed Brenda?
Yesterday morning:

Mr. Parker, I got a problem.

Yes Brenda.

My house has fungus all around the wall.
I have told the landlord about this.
My clothes have mildewed, my shoes have mildewed, everything has mildewed. What can I do?

Yes, the house she live in has mildewed 'cause it's been rainin'
and because the land-it's absentee ownership, right?-
he hasn't fixed the house
so when it rained, the water came through the wall, right?
What goes up comes down,
it settled along the wall and now it's mildewed and now it's chipping and the clothes in the close-she open the closet door up-
that's life, that's real.
So I have to go through this whole thing with Brenda in the class:

Brenda, you've got to go back to the landlord. Remember, I said never pay in cash, pay in check,
and, and without threatening say, "Well, if you don't do it, then I'll get it done and I'll take it out of the rent money."
That'll get his attention.
Okay that's one of the ways, that's one of the ways you can do it.
He promise you-
no you make him put it in writing-
because if you ever go to court ,
"he said, she said, I said" won't stand up in court.
You got to have something in writing.

I've got to go through this whole thing.
Brenda's got a problem,
she's got mildew in her house.

Students in Mr. Parker's class do have problems, and poor housing is just one of them. Getting students jobs in banks as proof-operators and tellers is, in Mr. Parker's view, a possible solution. He sees these jobs as entry into the powerful world of banking--a job of a different kind than turning burgers--a job with some possibility of advancement:

Interviewer: You know, it's really neat to see the, uh, see these students being able to move up.

Mr. Parker: Yeah, right. See, that's what I mean. Uh-huh, see, the whole, the whole idea, as I said, if, if nothing else. It's not that they're just gonna stay there in one position. There's a lot of room, a lot of mobility so they can move from-

Interviewer: Wh-, what's the cap on the mobility? I mean, is there, do you see, uh, a limit to where they can go?

Mr. Parker: No. No, there is no limit, but you can put limits on yourself.

Interviewer: OK.

Mr. Parker: And by that, anything, you got to go to school. It's like anywhere else. . . . This lady I had yesterday from Western Bank. She said, "I started out as a clerk/typist."

Interviewer: Is that-, is that right?

Mr. Parker: Yes! Absolutely. I mean, this is, this is not uncommon in banking. She started as a clerk/typist. She said, I had good typing skills, uh, and I had taken some shorthand, and then she became an executive. She went from a clerk/typist to an executive secretary. From an executive secretary she left, and I don't know if she moved into the loan. Now she's an assistant vice-president of Western Bank. And, again, she pointed out, they sent her to school. The bank paid. The bank paid for my Master's. I got my Master's. That's a fact. If you stick with it. Now, you got to prepare yourself, just like anything else.

When pressed, when confronted with the poor success rate of a particular group of students--these students had trouble keeping their jobs in banks, not to mention moving up--Mr. Parker had a number of responses. Sometimes he pointed to yet another "exception"--a student who had persevered and made it. Other times he attacked the public assistance system and his students' motivation, saying that people were tempted to stay at home and come to Gateway College for a few courses now and then and collect their welfare checks each month instead of getting out of bed and going to work. Sometimes his attack would include a disturbing polemic against African-American women whom he said on more than one occasion were in league with white men.

But, most often, Mr. Parker returned to the aforementioned theme of instilling self-confidence and a new self-image. He believed that students who went through his program and on to a job at a bank reaped lasting and significant benefits in terms of new belief in themselves. "I don't really care if they don't stay in the bank but two months," he once told me. "They still got something out of it. Now they know they can do something: they can get up in the morning and put on lipstick, and go to work just like other people." Similarly, when confronted with the sweatshop-like conditions of working as a proof-operator--high pressure, no benefits, rigid rules--Mr. Parker was apt to say again and again, "Something's better than nothing. Something's better than nothing."

The Employers: "I tell them the sky's the limit."

In many ways the personnel managers of local banks shared Mr. Parker's attitudes about the opportunities available to students who got jobs as proof-operators and tellers. Here is Mrs. Lavelle, who worked for Bank of the Pacific, describing the possibility of promotion:

Mrs. Lavelle: And what, uh, Mr. Parker usually have us do also, he'll ask us and I'll usually . . . come over and maybe just talk to the class and tell them a little about Bank of the Pacific and, uh, tell them that they can move up. That the sky is the limit. It's up to them, it's-, you know, it depends upon what they want out of life-. . . . There's another, uh, young lady that I can remember when she was also in Mr. Parker's program. I remember her name, R-Roslin Tabor, a extremely bright young lady and she was working, uh, down at Jack London Square, I'm trying to think of this restaurant, but she was working as a cashier there and she was going to school here-, uh, attending the banking program. And we hired her as a cashier in, uh, the cash vault, as a cash handler.

Interviewer: Mmhmm.

Mrs. Lavelle: And I, uh, me and several other ladies, we went on a tour over at 105 Smith Street and the cash vault was one of the areas, you know, that we toured and there was Roslin, Head Teller.

Interviewer: Ohh! [laughs]

Mrs. Lavelle: In a cage, you know, overseeing about eight other employees. And she waved to me and I asked her how did she like her job. She says, "Oh, I love it," and she was just-, I mean, she was so excited about it, and she was telling me her goals, that she was going to continue with her education because she wanted to do something with her life-

Interviewer: -Mmmhmm, mmhmm.

Mrs. Lavelle: Very, very impressed with her and she's still going to school. . . . And then, we just hired, let's see, when was this, I guess about, mmm, it was in October. Uh, October or November, we hired, uh, a young lady from, uh, one of the banking classes here also and she, at the time, was seventeen, with a child and she told me that she was, you know, living on her own. And we hired her as a proof-operator trainee and I understand that she's doing great.

Interviewer: Mmm, mmm. Yeah.

Mrs. Lavelle: I haven't talked to her, but, uh, the manager of the unit has told me that she's one of her best students.

Here is further testimony from Mrs. Lavelle:

Mrs. Lavelle: And we've got- we've really had people that I've hired here through Gateway College, uh, they have ( ), they have moved on-

Interviewer: -mmhmm, mmhmm-

Mrs. Lavelle: -they have been promoted and they started out with entry-level jobs. . . . I do know of, uh, several people that, uh, that are in management now-

Interviewer: -Ahh! Now that's very-, that's really powerful. That's really powerful-

Mrs. Lavelle: -Mmmhmm-

Interviewer: -that people can begin as a proof-operator and move through the, move through the-

Mrs. Lavelle: -they can-

Interviewer: -through the bank.

Mrs. Lavelle: Or as a mail, uh, carrier. Uh, it happens.

In the same way that Mr. Parker hoped to initiate students into the discourse of banking, giving them a new self-image and helping them to "articulate themselves," Mrs. Lavelle viewed working at a bank as continuing and deepening that socialization. And she viewed this socialization as a kind of service to society:

Mrs. Lavelle: You know, I enjoy-, it gives me a, a sense of satisfaction to see that we have this program. In a sense I guess you could say Bank of the Pacific has been a part of it, and we have taken students, we've employed them, and they've been developed-

Interviewer: -mmhmm, mmhmm-

Mrs. Lavelle: -and . . . they've ended up being productive-

Interviewer: -mmhmm-

Mrs. Lavelle: -in our society-

Interviewer: -mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm.

Mrs. Lavelle: Really, you know.

Interviewer: That's satisfying.

Mrs. Lavelle: Yeah, it- it is, it's rewarding. It really is.

I asked Mrs. Lavelle and other bank personnel about the need for reading and writing and literacy-related skills in jobs for proof-operators and banktellers. This kind of question seemed to surprise most people and elicited a range of answers. These employers seemed to take for granted the need to read on the job, at least at a "basic" level:

Interviewer: Uh, do you, is there a particular reading level that people have to make? I mean, people talk about like eighth-grade reading level, tenth-grade reading level-

Mrs. Lavelle: -we don't even get into that, you know, as long as they can-I mean, if they can read and understand what, uh, you know-

Interviewer: -on the-

Mrs. Lavelle: -you know, on the job. We're not talking about, you know, becoming a professor-

I also learned, however, that on-the-job training involves the use of thick manuals that students must be able to decipher well enough to be tested on. One manager from a different local bank said,

We have tons of training manuals. I mean, there's drawers and drawers and drawers and drawers and drawers of them. And we give those out to the employee. If they're so willing to learn, then they will take those home and begin to learn those, but you've got to spend some time with them, explaining what they don't understand.

Mrs. Bork, the trainer at Bank of the Pacific's Proof-Operation Center, said she just assumed students could read these manuals, and at any rate, they could take them home to study off the job which she supposed would allow them to get help with reading if they needed it. Mrs. Bork claimed little or no writing was required of proof-operators--just document completion and the checking off of boxes on forms. But Mrs. Lavelle maintained that writing was required, depending on the particular job, "Being able to read is definitely going to be important, and writing, also, because we do a lot of writing, so like if . . . inner unit memos, um, and then that depends upon the job that you have."

Both managers spoke about the importance of mastering job-related language:

Mrs. Lavelle: There's certain languages that the, um, I should say-, how should I put this, uh, uh, well within any company, you have, you know, you use, uh, you abbreviate words or-

Interviewer: -yeah, oh, the jargon of the company-

Mrs. Lavelle: -yes, that's it, like if I'm talking to somebody that's not within the company, then they wouldn't even understand what I was talking about if I said, oh, well, uh, this should go to, uh, PPP, which is Payroll, uh, Personnel Payroll Processing. You wouldn't understand that, but someone that-

Interviewer: -mmhmm, right-

Mrs. Lavelle: -that's with the company would. And so it's . . . just so many things that they will just automatically pick up.

Mrs. Bork thought this requirement might be especially hard on Asian students who did not have good English reading skills. But, while the proof-center did not care much whether their employees could speak English, this issue was raised as important in relation to some tellers:

Mrs. Lavelle: One of my, uh, coworkers, she staffs for the branches, and she hires for tellers, which are now called customer service reps . . . and he, uh, this young man, he scored, uh, I think it was like ninety something on the test, and that was the highest that anyone has ever scored, for this particular teller's test, but they could not hire him because of his communication skills, well, not as teller, so she wanted to know if, um, I had something. And uh, perhaps like in the cash vault, there's a cash handler and he would have been great for it, but right now all of the jobs in that area, uh, have been filled, so I've-, I have his application and if, you know, something comes available, then I will, uh, give him a call and I did talk to him. He has, uh, umm, a really- really thick accent and uh-

Interviewer: -is he A-, is he Asian?

Mrs. Lavelle: Yes, he is. And um, but his math is-

Interviewer: -Ahh, yeah-

Mrs. Lavelle: -You know, he did, you know, great-

Interviewer: -yeah-

Mrs. Lavelle: -but we will be able to do something for him, but just not in that particular area.

Interviewer: So there- there wouldn't be then training, uh, through B of P, for communication skills? [laughter] No. That's something you get when, you know, that's some-

Mrs. Lavelle: Yeah, but see, then that's why, like, um, they have a lot of schools that offer, uh, what-, English as a Second Language-

Interviewer: -Oh yeah, yeah.

Mrs. Lavelle: Even here in Gateway College, uh, but we-, you know, but that, I mean, but you know, well, we don't-, we don't discriminate, that's for sure-

Interviewer: -right [laughs]

Mrs. Lavelle: -so we, you know, we try to place that individual in a area-

Interviewer: -where he can-

Mrs. Lavelle: -right, uh-huh, where they would, you know, uh, be rewarding for everybody, but it makes it, you know, it's much better if they can continue to go to school and master it.

Mrs. Bork also recognized that communication skills were important for tellers, while they did not matter for proof-operators, and went on to point out that training was consequently different for the two positions:

As a teller you have to be understood well by your customer, you have to be- present yourself well, you have to be able to understand when they [the customers] get excited and upset with you. My proof-operators don't have to do that. . . . I don't have to smile at my machine every day. I don't have to call my machine by name. . . . If you want to be a teller, I'm going to train you totally differently.

In this last quote, Mrs. Lavelle mentioned an employment test for tellers. Bank of the Pacific also tests its applicants for proof-operator positions, as do other banks. In fact, one of the stumbling blocks for students in Mr. Parker's class was this proof-operation test. The timed test consisted of addition and subtraction problems that students were to work with their ten-key machines as well as visual discriminations like the following items:

On this portion you are supposed to quickly determine whether numbers and letters on the left are different from those on the right. The final portion of the test gave students the most difficulty, for it required applicants to do a lot of reading and direction following, as well as to negotiate rather tricky test-taking conventions. For example, the test reproduced a credit slip and several checks, with errors embedded in this imaginary banking transaction. Students had to interpret this rather complicated visual display, as well as select their answers from a multiple choice list of the "A but not B" or "A and B but not C" variety, and all of this under time constraints. (Screening tests given by other banks present different problems. For example, one test an applicant took included rather obscure questions on grammar and usage such as the distinction between who and that in relative clauses.)

Across the board, the representatives of local banks were pleased with Mr. Parker's program and students from the program whom they hired. In fact, these employers came to Mr. Parker's defense at one advisory board meeting in which some administrators at Gateway College proposed that the Banking and Finance program be revised, specifically that it be broadened to include more theory on banking and less practice of the sort students received in ten-key classes. One new course was to be called "Principles of Bank Operation" and another, "Bank Management." The rationale for this revision was that such a curriculum would put those students who so desired a better position to transfer from the community college to the state university or university system. Mrs. Lavelle and the other board members were adamant in their support of Mr. Parker, who also opposed the proposed changes. They claimed not to care whether students knew "Principles of Bank Operation," but, rather, said they needed people who got to work on time. Students who are interested in bank management are not the kind of people we want as tellers and proof-operators, added another personnel manager. Someone else claimed that Mr. Parker's program gave students an edge over people who just walked in off the street, and this edge was all they needed. And Mrs. Lavelle warned that if the proposed curriculum changes were enacted, the employers would simply go some place else--some place where they could get what they wanted. The end of this story is that Gateway College's administration backed off, and the vocational program in Banking and Finance continues in a manner approved by its advisory board.

The Workplace: "I'm hiring you as an hourly."

The proof-operation center of Bank of the Pacific is housed on the twelfth floor of a large, modern, imposing office building in a Bay Area city. Its entrance is closely guarded twenty-four hours a day; to gain access to the elevator you must have a special card, as well as a badge that specifies an official connection to the bank. When you step into the twelfth-floor proof-center, you have an immediate purview of the whole operation--row after orderly row of proof-operation machines (138 to be exact) and a sea of female faces operating them.

The best time to see this center is late on a Friday night, around 11:00 p.m., when every machine is sure to be clattering and humming. Banks do a lot of business on Fridays, which means that proof-operators will work hard afterwards. The proof-operators at this center work by the hour with no benefits. Mrs. Bork stated, "We don't offer benefits hardly at all anymore and we're not the only company doing that. Benefits are expensive for a company." She also pointed out that "a proof-operator who works eight hours a day is not as effective as a proof-operator who works six hours a day." The bank wants a person who still has a burst of speed left at the end, and that also argues for part-time workers. Mrs. Bork promises her employees fifteen hours a week; she says, "Up front I'm telling you I don't plan to give you very much in the end. I'm hiring you as an hourly." Proof-operators come to work around 4:00 p.m. and stay until the work is done, which may be 1:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Mrs. Bork admits that

Here our hours aren't the best in the world. We've got later hours than anybody else. Tremendous transportation problems when you are outside the metropolitan area. If you don't have transportation, you can forget it. People need to have some kind of mobility.

Furthermore, proof-operators work when the bank needs them as projected by historical records. "That last week of the month when there isn't much work, I'm going to work you Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday and that's it," says Mrs. Bork.

What proof-operators actually do is feed debit or credit slips through a machine, simultaneously key in the amount of the debit or credit on the ten-key calculator which is part of the machine, and encode a number designating the type of transaction. These slips come in bundles from branch banks and customers; the bundles are weighed and the amount of time in which they should be processed is generated by a computer program according to their weight. Some bundles are "cleaner" than others, that is, they contain fewer errors. Errors might be a bank teller's mistake or a customer's mistake--for example, a mistake in addition or subtraction: You fill out your deposit slip as $450.00 when the check you are depositing actually reads $452.02. Whatever the source of the errors, "the buck stops here," jokes Mrs. Bork. Proof-operators must correct those errors, key-in the correct amounts, and route the debit and credit slips through the machine, where they are photographed and spat out into one of three pockets, depending on their designation. All this happens very, very rapidly, when a proof-operator is making production. All you see is a blur of papers and fingers.

Operators start out at $6.20 an hour. For eight weeks they go through training, which involves both hands-on practice with proof-machines, studying manuals, and memorizing codes for ninety-eight separate documents. And then they are put out on the floor. At this point, they should be able to process between four- and five-hundred items an hour, and if they are not able to, "they really struggle" according to Mrs. Bork. At three months, they must process eight-hundred items an hour or they are let go. Final production quota is sixteen-hundred items an hour, but people do more for incentive pay. The highest rate that Mrs. Bork has seen is three thousand per hour, but she says that with the simplification of the process--her bank is now changing from a "multiple pocket sort" to a "single pocket sort"--the rate keeps pushing up. According to Mrs. Bork, this move toward simplification has resulted in de-skilling:

In banking, you don't need to know as much [as in the old days]. In other words, proof-operators don't do anything else; that's the only job they need to know. It's much more specialized and centralized; it's much cheaper all the way around.

(. . .)

When I started in proof . . . in 1962 . . . we had a machine that sorted thirty-two pockets. . . . We're working towards a one-pocket sort [at Bank of the Pacific]. Western Bank has been on a one-pocket sort for years. We've been cutting down slowly, from thirty-two pockets, down.

Not only is speed important, workers must be accurate as well. Proof-operators are fired for making too many errors, or their incentive pay is docked. Mrs. Bork mentions taking a person's incentive pay because of errors: "If they make three errors in a month, I take a third of their incentive pay away."

There are other ways to lose the job, and one of them is not being on time. Mrs. Bork explains:

In proof, we have people come in exactly when we need them. We have an extremely tough [tardiness/attendance policy], well, it's not unacceptable but it's very strong, and we stick to it. You don't abuse our attendance or our tardiness guidelines or you don't have a job. And we're very strict on the first three months.

In fact, Mr. Parker likens the bank's rules to his experiences in the military:

Well, what happens when they get to the bank; they're in an entirely different environment because of-, it means that they have to, uh, yeah well it's a-, well like, I guess you could say it's like a regimented environment because, uh, there are things that they have to do, uh, attendance, uh, make sure they're- they get to work on time, um, they, uh, meet a different set of people all together, uh, then they're trained, on the job, and their values are different. I mean, everything about them change.

Students who worked at the bank talked about being watched, feeling their supervisor's eyes on them waiting for them to make mistakes or steal the occasional currency that students believed was deliberately planted in their work bundles. Here is Alma talking about traps:

Alma: They always set a trap for you. OK, like you have a, they put a fifty-dollar bill in there, in your bundle of work, you just stick it in your pocket, you know you're gone.

Interviewer: Did you have one in yours?

Alma: Sure! They did that. I saw it run through the machine. I knew what it was. I stopped the machine, and I called a supervisor and told her what had happened. She came in, she look at the bill, she say "OK, of course you got to sign for it, you know." It's amazing how they, they'll set traps for you. . . . There's cameras every place, everywhere.

Interviewer: How could you stand to work being watched so much?

Alma: I, it didn't bother me 'cause I didn't want to take any money.

The demands to produce and be accurate, the strict rules about tardiness, workers' perceptions that they were being watched, all combined to produce a very pressured work environment: Here is Mrs. Bork's description:

There is a burn-out rate in proof-operators. . . . It is an extremely pressured job. I mean, you have to clock in when you walk in the door on a log and you clock every movement you make. I mean, if you get up and go to the bathroom, it comes out of your run time. . . . We have deadlines to meet, and our deadlines . . . are always very tight, so you're always pushing your people at the end of the day.

The working conditions themselves are perhaps enough to cause heavy turnover in a proof-center, which, in turn, requires constant training of new employees. But Mrs. Bork takes this all rather philosophically: "There's always going to be turnover any place in the bank, especially when you're in this large of an office." Besides, she also mentions, if we did not have turnover, "it would make me unemployed."

The Students

In the next sections, I present the stories of four African-American women and two young men, one Chinese American and one African American, as their expectations about the course and future jobs in a bank interact with the curriculum of Banking and Finance and the reality of proof-operating.

Most of the women in this program fall into two age groups. The first group is comprised of women in their early twenties with very young children. The second is made up of women in their late thirties to early fifties, who are also single and have growing or grown children. The men are mostly young, just out of high school or in their early twenties. Most of the students or their families survive with the help of government subsidies. Most of them live in neighborhoods like the one in which Jackie, the subject of our first narrative, lives. Mr. Parker described that neighborhood as he drove us through it:

I am in the heart of the drug scene, I am right in the heart. I mean seriously, my brother lives on ( ) Street on the right, three blocks down there. . . . This is the heart of the drive-bys, shoot(ings), and crack houses, right down here, see the police? . . . This is the worst part, this is East Oakland.

(. . .)

They're young Blacks that has no hope, have taken to the streets, and taken to drugs to make it. The young girls, coming from school here, their chances is slim and none.

Jackie: "The third time I was three minutes late."

Jackie had been out of high school for two years when she enrolled in Banking and Finance. She had been accepted to San Francisco State University out of high school, but because she did not receive sufficient and timely financial aid, she was unable to attend. Then she became pregnant and waited until her baby was a year old to resume her schooling, which she knew she needed, even though she was somewhat intimidated by the prospect. She says she received a good high school education where the faculty was like "family" and where she was required to complete academically challenging work such as ten-page papers. But Jackie had not always wanted to attend college. Not until a career class in high school changed her mind. She also worried that she was not "smart enough" for college:

It's scary. It's scary. I was going to live on campus, you know. I was scared, I didn't think I was going to do real good in my classes and all of that, I wasn't smart enough. That's the real reason why. I was scared to go, scared, scared.

Her past job experiences included working at a child-care center in a nearby park, working as a janitor at the local army base, handing out free lunches for Parks and Recreation, working at an insurance agency, and perhaps most memorable for her, working at McDonald's.

The semester in which she enrolled in Mr. Parker's class was her second at the community college. She found out about the course while reading through the college catalogue. She had always wanted to work in a bank, she told us, but as she put it, "It's not easy to get a job in a bank." She wanted to work at a bank, she said, because she likes to work with money. She also wanted to work in an environment that was different from the one she experienced as a high school student working at McDonald's:

Jackie: It seems more pleasant, like say . . . you wonder (why) I want to work with money behind a cash register, I'd rather work at a bank than work at McDonald's, you know, it's a peaceful, more peaceful environment.

Interviewer: Have you ever worked at McDonald's?

Jackie: Uh huh, yeah, it was a lot of problems, you know, customers talking about "I didn't order this" and . . . you heard this, you know, get into arguments with the customer, hey, you know, the customer always right. Most times I had to go get a manager because it was like a Korean lady or something, she ordered like ten Big Macs, five McDLT's, and stuff, you know, and I gave her her order and she said "I didn't say this, I didn't say that." I said, "Well, that's what I thought you said." You know, she didn't have to talk to me the way she did, so I just went to get a manager, I didn't argue with her or nothing.

Jackie also said she was enrolled in Banking and Finance because she needed a job immediately, and she considered a job in a bank a good one, a possible career position:

I was just going to school to find out what I wanted to do (first semester). First, I had wanted to major in child care, child development, and I said . . . it's going to take too long and I need a job now, a good job, because like in banks, you know, banks is all over the nation, you'll always have a job. Once you work in a bank, I feel you could, you know, always work in the bank, if you had a good experience, you know, be at work all the time, you know, like say work in a bank for two years instead of just a month, keep on transferring the banks. . . .

Right now, I need, I need a job now and stuff. So I can help me pay my rent and stuff, but if I was, you know, like try to get an A.A. you know, right now, if I get a certificate then I could start working, if I was to get an A.A. you know, I'd have to stay in the school for two years, you know, take all the A.A. requirements, them plus the requirements to become a banker, you know, like all the accounting classes and stuff, right now, but we just taking this class right here. In May, I'll finish and get a certificate, then I can start working. . . . Much easier, shorter.

Jackie had worked the semester before we met her, but her transportation problems were almost insurmountable. Here she describes those problems:

First, I was going to school, and taking my baby to child care, and I was working at UPS at night, I was catching fourteen buses a day last semester. Take my baby to school, then go to school, then go home for a little while, then eat and stuff, then go pick my baby up, drop him off at the babysitter, go to work, go pick up my baby, go home, all day long every day, fourteen buses, you know, like if I want to go pick up I mean take my baby to school, I got to catch the 40, then I got to transfer to the 14, then I got to get on 14 again, and then get on 40 to go to school, all semester.

(. . .)

If I get a car, you know, I get another night job, and start, and get extra money, and stuff, but catching those buses like that, I was like getting at home 11:30 every night, you know, it's all cold outside, me and my baby on the bus, I didn't like it really. . . . (Just) trying to get my baby some stuff for Christmas.

When she enrolled in Banking and Finance the following semester, she decided not to work. Rather, she attended school full-time, depending on governmental assistance and credit for education to see her through. Transportation was no longer such a problem for her then.

Jackie passed the proof-operator test with ease, was interviewed for the position of proof-operator, and hired by Bank of the Pacific. Within two months of having been placed in this position, however, she was given the choice of resigning or being fired. She was asked to leave because she had been late to work three times in the sixty days she had been there, the last time by three minutes, as she explains in an interview after she was fired:

Interviewer: How long did you work there?

Jackie: Something like two months, I think it was two months, at the most, because I was late three times, and I had gotten fired. You know how you be on probation for ninety days? Before that ninety days was up, I was late three times.

(. . .)

The third time I was three minutes late.

Once she had gotten a job at Bank of the Pacific, her transportation problem had reappeared. Now she had to catch rapid transit (BART) to get to the city. She explains why she was late to work three times in two months:

I had to drop him [the baby] off, then go way out there, sometimes we had to be there at 2:30, sometimes 3:30, and BART, sometimes the BART comes five minutes apart, then sometimes they come fifteen apart, you know.

(. . .)

I had got a car too, then I started going out driving out to West Oakland to the BART station and you know, leaving my car at the BART still catching the BART but catching it out of West Oakland because you know it was cheaper, faster for me to get there, you know, and on Fridays, you know, the BART closes at twelve o'clock, and we was getting off work like at one o'clock, 12:30 so you know I had to drive out to San Francisco on Friday. We had the carpool and stuff.

(. . .)

It was kinda too far, too, before I had got my car, like at nighttime, then I have, you know, get off the BART, get on the bus, then go get him at one or two o'clock in the morning, then come home.

Mr. Parker was aware of the transportation problems his students faced, and he even knew in particular of Jackie's difficulties. He noted that transportation is more of a problem for the women he places than for the men. In the following excerpt from an interview conducted while Jackie was still employed by the bank, he brings up her transportation problem and relates it to a similar problem of another student placed in the same job:

Mr. Parker: Jackie's doing wonderful, Jackie's doing fine, she's doing fine. Their only concern is Friday night, tonight. They don't get off until one o'clock. And there's no transportation. The BART trains stop running at 12:00.

Interviewer: So what will they do?

Mr. Parker: They commute, but they carpool. But as a new student they kinda reluctant. Don't know a lot of people. The guys, doesn't matter. But the girls now. One of my older students in my other class, Lorraine, the one I told you was my top student in my other class. She called me today because she has had a conflict with one of the girl's boyfriend. As she puts it, he tried to put the make on her, so she said, "I won't ride with him any more," and so I'm having, she's having to find another ride.

(. . .)

The situation's unfortunate, that she's put in a situation where she may have to succumb to getting in the car, riding with him, being subjected to something she's not pleased with at this point. . . .

In addition to the problem of reliable transportation, Jackie had problems with added expenditures resulting from working in a large city a considerable distance from home. The first of these was the added cost of transportation. Eating meals in San Francisco and paying for child care in the evenings also added to the cost of this job:

Jackie: It costed to go to that job, though, because . . . after I got off the bus I had used to just get a thirty dollar bus pass. I started, ah, you know, using gas for my car, and then the BART, and then you got to eat your dinner there, you know, eat there, then you got to catch the BART back home. It was like four dollars a day for just BART. . . . And then, um, I was paying like say fifteen dollars a week for gas, and then if I had to drive out there, that would be five extra dollars and stuff. It was costing though, and then you know lunch time you got to spend three or more dollars just to eat and stuff. It costed every day, but then when your check came, it all broke out even.

Jackie's transportation problem revolved around child care. The only free daycare facility that supplied meals and diapers required two buses. In addition, proof-operating is a night job and free daycare closes at 5:30 p.m., so she had to pay for a babysitter during the evening hours and pick up her child in the wee hours of the morning. Mr. Parker noted this:

Mr. Parker: The basic thing is to be able to take care of her child, to get him where she won't have to be worrying about him when she's at work.

Jackie: Um hm, like I was last time.

Mr. Parker: See, that's an added burden.

Although Jackie was optimistic about her earnings, there was a real question of whether her salary from the bank would support her and her child, especially considering these additional expenses.

Jackie: We was on part-time, we really like, we don't get no benefits or nothing, but once you get on prime-time and then get full-time, you get more benefits and everything. Dental, all that.

Interviewer: By working part-time, did you make enough money to support yourself?

Jackie: I think, if I would have kept, yeah, yeah, it would have been enough, um hm, it would have been enough to pay for like four hundred dollars in rent here, twenty dollars on PG&E [gas and electricity], like thirty on the telephone bill. If it was like that every month, you know, I could have made it with that, you know, because we was only working like six and four hours. If I would have been working eight hours or something I really could have bought food and everything, bought a car and everything, but, it was enough.

Holding out hopes of going back to work at the bank, Jackie chose to resign rather than to be fired so that Bank of the Pacific could conceivably rehire her in another position at a later date. Mr. Parker supported her hopes in this direction:

Jackie: I'm going back looking again cause that's where I want to work. I want to work in a bank.

Mr. Parker: I can get Jackie a job in a bank, just from a personal reference. Um, the only thing my-, I hope this is a real learning thing for her. Meaning-

Jackie: -I know, when I got fired.

Mr. Parker: You gotta be there, see (laughs), see, you gotta be there. That's the bottom line. Uh, I can get her a job in a bank. We-, first of all, she's got a very nice personality and that's what they really want. She knows ( ) and she's articulate and she'll be a good person in customer service and now she knows what she has to do any more, it'll be different this time around-

Interviewer: -mmhmm- Mr. Parker: -So we can work that. That's no problem.

Jackie is now at home with her child, living on public assistance and some help from her child's father.

Alma: "Most people are right-handed."

Now in her late forties or early fifties, Alma was born and raised in Arkansas. She had her first child in 1970, and her youngest is thirteen and still in school. In Arkansas, she attended segregated schools. After high school, she went to live with her sister in St. Louis, attending college there briefly before coming to California and raising her family. Alma has worked as an attendant in a rest home and as a teacher's aide in the Oakland Public Schools. Before coming to Gateway College, she was in a computer skills and basic literacy training program for nine months. Like Jackie, she is in the Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program for employment training. (GAIN is a California program which requires women with school-age children to attend training programs in order to continue to receive public assistance.)

Alma decided to enroll in the Banking and Finance program because it caught her eye when she was flipping through the "brochure." She thought she would be good at banking because she enjoys working with numbers and likes working with people; moreover, she thought that the environment would be pleasant: "It's a more respectful environment, so it seemed like they should, they give you respect. . . . By you being there behind the counter you have the authority." She planned to work her way up in the bank from proof-operator, as Mr. Parker had explained in class. In her first interview, she reveals this vision:

But you grad- you gradually work up. He said, once they employ you for six months and then they see- they feel motivated if you're going to work, they'll send you back to college and pay you- and, you know, pay your fee for coming here.

One of Mr. Parker's goals for Banking and Finance was to give students confidence. In this regard, he tried to make Alma a role model for the class, not only to help the other students, but also to give her more confidence. Here is how he explains it:

Mr. Parker: See, I'm using Alma as my model.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mr. Parker: And so, I'm, I'm shaping Alma. I'm putting a lot of time in. See, Alma is all right, it's just a little confidence, but that's my model. Alma is my model. If I can use Alma as my model, then I can shape LaReisha and the rest of them.

Part way through Mr. Parker's course, Alma appeared to be gaining confidence as can be seen from how she talks about herself: "I think I can master it, whatever it is. . . . I'm dependable, I'm motivated, I'm ready to work . . . I'm determined . . . Sure we can make it, I believe we can make it. . . ."

But despite being hand-picked as a success story, Alma failed the proof-operator test, having difficulty with some particularly tricky word problems. This upset her teacher, who felt it might destroy Alma's new and still fragile confidence:

I know she can do the work. I know she can do the work and Alma has had a lot of failure and that's what bothers me. God damn it, I can't have her to continue to fail. She's got to have some success. You know what I mean?

(. . .)

But I haven't given up. I'm gonna get Alma a job, one way or the other. Somewhere along the line, I'm gonna get Alma a god damn job. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna get it, but I'm just talking about, now I do this-, it's probably wrong, I don't know if it's right, but I'm gonna do it. I do this because I want to do this. I'm doing what I want to do. I'm doing what I know will work and I know I'm gonna hit upon the right person. . .

Alma took the test again, after going over a sample test and practicing similar problems. This time she passed. But it was not the practice alone that helped her. She had expediently memorized the answers to the problems that had caused difficulty the first time. And, finally, she was hired by the bank as a proof-operator.

Six months later Alma was fired because she could not meet the required production speed. In a follow-up interview, I learned that Alma was left-handed while all the proof-operating machines in the bank are made for right-handed workers. For six months she had punched the ten-key board with one index finger and, not surprisingly, was not able to keep up with her right-handed peers. Mr. Parker was unaware that the bank had only right-handed machines, and also he had not noticed that Alma was left-handed, since his machines accommodate both right and left-handed students.

In a follow-up interview, Alma compared proof-operating to assembly line work where things are "mostly assembled with right-hand people [because] . . . most people, most people are right-handed." And she makes the point about left-handed people that "we just born like that." Throughout this follow-up interview, which included Mr. Parker, Alma repeatedly states that she could do all the work required of a proof-operator, albeit not in the time limits set by the bank. Mr. Parker takes equal pride with Alma that she had mastered the machine:

Alma: And I was doing the work.

Mr. Parker: And you was doing the work.

Alma: I had no problem opening the machine and closing the machine. I was doing that work, (not) fast enough [laughs].

Mr. Parker: You closed that machine?

Alma: Sure!

Mr. Parker: Changed the ribbon on that machine?

Alma: You better believe it!

Mr. Parker: See, that, that's all-

Alma: -And clean the camera off every day.

Mr. Parker: That's right. And that's-

Alma: -And clean it up, clean the whole machine off. Once a week, take the whole machine apart-

Mr. Parker: -that's right, take it apart.

Alma: -and clean it up, clean the whole machine off. Once a week, take the whole machine apart-

Mr. Parker: -that's right, take it apart.

Alma: -and clean it up.

Mr. Parker: And that's all I wanted to instill in my students, confidence. Hell, if she can do it, I can do it, too.

After having worked at the bank, Alma believed that the test which had almost prevented her from getting the job in the first place was unrelated to the work she had been doing:

Interviewer: You know, you think that, you remember the test, do you know that test-

Alma: -yes-

Interviewer: Was that a good test for-

Alma: -It didn't have anything to do with that bank. It had nothing to do with the machine what was there-

Interviewer: -Did it have nothing, did it have anything-

Alma: -No!-

Interviewer: -to do with the job at all?

Alma: NO!

Interviewer: Isn't that interesting.

Alma: None what-so-ever.

Even after being kept out of this position by a test which she now believed had nothing to do with the job, and being asked to resign only because she was left-handed, Alma still hoped to work in a bank one day. Mr. Parker encouraged her to think this is possible, while he also suggested the difficulties involved, given the fact that she lost her entry-level position:

Interviewer: So what kind of job would you be looking for next? Uh, another one at a bank or would you do something else or-

Alma: I don't know. I'll try bank again, I'm not sure, so I'll train with them. [laughs]

Interviewer: Well, what advice would you have? [to Mr. Parker]

Mr. Parker: Well, actually, depending on what's, what's available, uhm, see, what I probably could do for Alma is, is in look around, ask around in the bank for something other than a, than a proof. See, less she mention, this would ( ) ATM operators and these are the people who empty the ATM machines, automatic teller-

Interviewer: Mmhmm.

Mr. Parker: Uh, the check reconcilement people, uhm, the statement person which she mentioned.

Interviewer: Mmhmm.

Mr. Parker: The problem with it is, is that a lot of these jobs are internal-

Interviewer: -Mmhmm-

Mr. Parker: -and so,-

Interviewer: -Yeah, OK, so, you can't get them unless you're already there.

Mr. Parker: Unless, see, I have to, I have to be on first name, first basis that's we have to give, see, that's why we have to go to the proof-center cause I need to get over and break bread with Mrs. Bork. See, I gotta get in good with Mrs. Bork.

( . . . )

Mr. Parker: -See, it's all politics-

Interviewer: -Yeah.

Mr. Parker: And if I can get on the good side of Mrs. Bork and say, "Look, you remember Alma? "Yes, I remember Alma." "I really need to get her a position other than a proof." See, but I gotta massage Mrs. Bork.

Despite her mishaps at the bank, Alma says that she "feels good" about her experience there because "you don't just pass the test and walk off the job and don't show up. You try, you know, you try." She is now on government assistance and at home with her children.

LaReisha: "It's not about what you can do, it's about who you know."

LaReisha is in her mid-thirties and, like many of the other women, unmarried. She has two boys, aged five and thirteen. She was born and raised in the Bay Area. Although she says she liked school, she did not get a high school diploma: "I liked going to school, but then some days I guess I was just being-, wanted to be with the crowd, to see what the crowd was doing. It paid off and see I'm doing nothing." Later she got a part-time job and went to Gateway College, but she could not get financial aid because she was still living at home and her parents earned too much for her to qualify. LaReisha began her work at Gateway College by taking courses in welding. She has also been through a basic reading and writing course designed to promote academic literacy and aid in transferring to a four-year college. After this she took Cosmetology, and then enrolled in Banking and Finance. In all, she says she has completed over one-hundred units at Gateway College. Yet, she has not completed a degree and has only a Banking and Finance certificate. LaReisha has worked at the now defunct DelMonte canning plant in Oakland where she worked as a janitor, worked in quality control, and ran a peach belt. She was earning $9.35 an hour when the factory closed. She is interested in getting similar work at General Foods. She says she will do anything as long as it pays, but she has not worked in either of her trained vocations--welding or cosmetology.

While attending Gateway College, LaReisha learned that through various AFDC and job-training programs, she could receive money for attending vocational courses. Her welding course was funded by the CETA program. As she puts it, "I went through CETA, cause CETA was giving me money." And her current schooling is supported by AFDC programs: "Oh now, just because I'm on, uh, AFDC, OK, and, um, you know, since I'm on AFDC they, they allow you, I forgot the grant and, um, I'm getting financial aid, and you know, they help, they're help paying for it and everything."

When she enrolled in Banking, she was already enrolled in Cosmetology, another vocational program. Financial aid would not let her stay in both classes. Mr. Parker explained this to us:

Financial aid will not pay for two vocations, yeah that's it. That's a-, that's a hook. If you-if you start in cosmetology and you're on financial aid, you have to stay with that program until you finish it, I think. And they will not pay for you coming into Banking and Finance because that's another vocation, you follow what I'm saying?

LaReisha had to learn to negotiate these rules on her own, however, and, as a result, she holds a rather low opinion of the financial aid advisors at Gateway College: "They ain't boo-boo, they ain't nothing. . . . I had to help myself."

Unlike Jackie and Alma, LaReisha did not enroll in Banking and Finance to get a job. Rather, she says she wanted to "try and experience this banking." She explains that:

I'm kind of confused on what I really want to do. . . . I want to get a taste of it and the only way to get a taste of it is to go to school.

(. . .) Yeah, so it's like I'm just exploring, exploring,

(. . .)

It's basically, I'm confused or I haven't matured enough to understand where I want to be at. . . . I haven't matured in that field yet in basically what I want to do. . . . So I decided what I'm going to have to touch here-, touch base here, touch base there, find out what I really want to do. . . .

Early in the course, Mr. Parker set his sights on changing LaReisha. He wanted to socialize her into the more mild-mannered working person that he believes the bank would find more palatable, and he also appeared to recognize that she did not buy into the system and values he promoted:

Mr. Parker: No, no, she's not ready yet. No I haven't,- she's rough around the edge. I haven't- I haven't- uh got LaReisha where I want to.

(. . .)

She's rough around the edges because she's had a lot of things happened to her. She's still got, she's still got, LaReisha has a little meanness in her, if you want to put it. She-, she's still kinda angry with society, kinda thing. I gotta- I gotta shape her up. I gotta mellow her out.

(. . .)

I gotta change her demeanor, I gotta change her talk, I gotta change her attitude. . . . I gotta stroke her, then I gotta knock her down. . . .

(. . .)

She's, she's ready . . . but she's not ready mentally . . . she's still angry. She-, her boiling point is still too high. She'll get angry . . . she'll tell you where to go in a minute . . . and I got to get rid of that, see . . . I got to get those chips off her shoulder.

Mr. Parker also wanted to change LaReisha's thinking about and behavior with men. He seemed to fear that any woman in his program, if she were in a relationship with a man, would likely be ill-treated and become pregnant unless she was ever vigilant:

Mr. Parker: Well that's-, what kind of god damn woman, excuse me Glynda, I'm sorry (laughter), but I get so angry-

Interviewer: -yeah-

Mr. Parker: -because, you know, these are, these are bright people, they are intelligent, they . . . LaReisha is a nice young lady, Karessa is a nice young lady, right? So I'm saying . . . wake up, damn it! Stop being abused by these god damn men! All they want is to lay you down on the couch. Anybody can do that. You know what I mean? So, but I'm the only one saying that [laughs] you know, and I'm only saying that to a-, what's there. The rest of these people are not saying that. To give these, these individuals hope, and to say you don't have to do that. There's more to life than that and more important, you're gonna have somebody that come by that become emotionally involved, get involved, and then, you're pregnant-

(. . .)

But I can't, see, see, I can't do that [talk to the women in his program directly about birth control] and I don't do that because I'm not in-, the only time I do that where I know I'm safe, when I say, I say if I have another female with me to talk to-. The nurse up there is the one who sent me the prophylactics now, but I don't do that, you know, I said, no I'm not gonna get involved with this shit [laughs], you know, cause that's all I need, uh, for something like that. So, on a, on a, on another, on another, on another level, uh, I, I kinda talk to people, to them. Like I got LaReisha, LaReisha's gonna be all right, see, cause I can talk with LaReisha. I can talk to her.

Interviewer: She seemed, yeah, she's really something, LaReisha is.

Mr. Parker: See, LaReisha's got it together.

Interviewer: She does, doesn't she?

Mr. Parker: Yeah. LaReisha's got it together. They're not gonna get to her no more [laughs]. No, cause I told her, you know, let him go, you know what he wants and that's all he wants and he's already given you one. ( ) Even if it don't feel good, wear a boot, you know, I can talk to LaReisha like that-

Interviewer: -yeah, yeah-

Mr. Parker: -she said "you got it" [laughs] you know, she's, "you got it"-

Interviewer: -yeah, yeah-

Mr. Parker: -I say, you know, if you don't have any, I got some, just don't take no chances. It's too big of a chance to take. You can't afford to take anymore chances. Well, LaReisha's grown, she's mature-

Mr. Parker and LaReisha do agree on one thing, however: LaReisha does not plan to have any more children. But she does not plan to marry, either. She has her own views on that subject:

Marriage ain't nothing to me. . . . What is marriage? A piece of paper?

(. . .) You know, it, it's, it's like a pain. I have these two children . . . I have to provide for and then see, like a husband, he just another addition that I got to cook, and he want me to cook his food.

(. . .)

It seem like to me, if he's gonna take care of me, he's gonna put limitations on my life. . . . And I don't want that. I want to be able to go and do as I please, because I make my money. . . .

Interviewer: Now LaReisha got a job at Bank of the Pacific, too, right? Is she gonna take it?

Mr. Parker: Mmhmm, oh yes, LaReisha can't wait. -I gave LaReisha a reason to be alive, to be a person. I reassured her that she, I said, "LaReisha, you, you the best I got. You know, I say that to all of them. But you, you, you, you the-, I mean you got everything that one needs. Hell, you can go anywhere you want to. Don't ever let anybody tell you you can't do something. . . ."

But LaReisha does not take the job at the bank. She first says she declined because of the unusual hours and transportation problems. Later she says it is because her boyfriend told her not to take it.

Interviewer: How'd you know what it was going to be like?

LaReisha: Because my boyfriend told me. He said he wasn't going to be resp-, he told me he don't feel like be coming across there having to pick me up because he know'd it was going to be a hassle. Cuz he knew that the BART stops at twelve, he thought it was twelve. And he said he didn't think it was a good idea because he used to party over there, then he said he don't think it would be a good idea because it'd be too much of a hassle and he'd have to come and plus he have to work. . . . So he said he preferred for me not to do it.

Mr. Parker has his own theory of how LaReisha can afford to turn down the proof job. "LaReisha's working the system. She's still at Gateway College." He says that she will keep receiving public assistance as long as she is enrolled in school. She has returned to cosmetology, and he says she can make ends meet that way, and probably will continue, until the money runs out. He says she also has a 'sugar daddy' subsidizing her needs. "She's not hurting," Mr. Parker concludes.

A year after most of her classmates had taken and lost jobs at Bank of the Pacific, LaReisha talked about why she thought it was smarter for her to stay in school and receive governmental subsidies than to take a job at the bank. She presents a critique of the job market that provides an alternative way of viewing the system than Mr. Parker and the bank represent to the class:

LaReisha: Tellers don't say that they make any money. . . . I don't know how much they make, but you know what gets me is this, these job markets, they, you, it seems like everything is all backwards. OK, like working at McDonald's. You see how much work- have you been to McDonald's?

Interviewer: Yeah.

LaReisha: You see how much work those cashiers or-, they do?. . . For a little bit of nothing and then people that making money, oh, they sit on their butt all day, you know what I'm saying? . . . I mean they ought to give them something. . . . Just, I mean if you think about it, like teller. Teller seems like it's a hard job to do, but I don't know how much it pay . . . six or seven dollars.

(. . .)

Another thing with the job market. It's all about who you know. . . . It's not about what you can do, it's about who you know.

Currently LaReisha has two jobs and is helping friends at Gateway College to find employment, too. She works for the local public transportation system as a bus driver and at an Avis rental car agency as a driver, a "mobile," and a "rover." The latter is supplementary work; she uses it to pay for luxury items such as a fur coat. To date, LaReisha has not taken a job at a bank.

Vivian: "I'm very inquisitive about everything."

Like LaReisha, Vivian did not enroll in Banking and Finance necessarily to get a job, but she was not "working the system" either. Her purpose for being in the program was to learn all about banking--as opposed to becoming a banker.

Vivian, like Alma, was among the older students in the class, enrolling in community college now that her son, aged thirteen, was in school. She had held few jobs in recent years and had instead devoted herself to raising her son. In high school, she had worked at her school as a switchboard operator. While her son was growing, she volunteered to work at church banquets. Since 1986, she has worked as a waitress at a barbecue stand. She describes her decision to enroll in the Banking and Finance program this way: "You know, I have been really doin' general education, refreshing courses. Then I decided, well, I want to do something different, try something different, and then I--well, maybe banking will be for me." Because of dental surgery, Vivian did not start attending the program until three weeks into the semester. She was concerned at first that she would not be able to catch up with the other students, but she soon did, becoming an active member of the class.

Vivian seemed to believe the purpose of education was personal fulfillment, not getting a job--an unusual attitude among those we studied in this vocational program. Here she talks about Mr. Parker's class:

Banking? Yes I feel, OK, if I really wanted to go out and get a job in banking, it prepared me to get a job. But my goal is to learn as much as I can about banking. You see, I know there are different avenues in banking. OK, you have teller, you have switchboard operators, you have ATM tellers. You have real estate, stocks, and bonds. So there are all the different kinds of avenues to banks. . . . And I want to learn as much as I can. I don't want to do just one particular thing. If I have to, I really would like to say, well, I have experience doing a variety of different things, not only as a teller doing transaction work, but I would like to know about loans, real estate loans. Because that's a field that eventually whenever I do get into a position to buy me a home or whatever, or to have a purchase, I would like to know how would I go about purchasing this land. And how much interest I would have to pay. So if I decided to go to the bank, I would have some knowledge of how to go about it.

Her interest in the various aspects of banking came across in class, as well. When a guest speaker came to talk about financial planning, she asked several questions about stocks and bonds during class, then wanted to talk with the speaker during break about personal investments.

Vivian said one reason she wanted to learn all of the various aspects of banking was because she tends to get bored by repetition:

I like the teller part . . . because there's so many different transactions that you can do, and see that's the thing that really keeps me motivated- is learning how to do the different transactions with money and stuff.

(. . .)

Just sittin' down doin' one job really couldn't, at times for me, really could become very boring. So I like to learn how to do this one here, these here, and here. I like to be, have, versatility. And then that way when I feel better, I'm able to expand myself and learn this and this. I'm more motivated.

Her interest in the educational as opposed to vocational aspect of this program was also evident in her desire to complete a degree program in banking. She talked to us about the classes she would need to fulfill that ambition: "I'll just have to go and see a counselor to find out which [math] course is really equivalent to banking. Because I have often specified not just only for a certificate but what is required for me to get an A.A. degree in banking."

Vivian's "inquisitive" nature, as she called it, went beyond her desire to learn all about banking, to include other subjects as well. She said she had been taking "a variety (of) general courses" at Gateway College prior to enrolling in banking. And she expressed an interest in taking other classes such as computer courses in the future, talking about other courses much as she talked about banking in terms of the "variety" which the subjects had to offer: "And that's another thing I want to do, too, is get into more computer classes. . . . There are a lot of different things a person can do on a computer. You know, you have all kinds of data sheets that can do, word processing sheets." Finally, the way she described her reading reflects her varied interests:

I really like a lot of culture books. You know, I like poetry. I like anything, you know, with, that have to do with history cause I'm inquisitive. You know, I'm the one that picks up a book and if I start readin' in it and if it seems interesting to me I will continue to read to the end of the book, you know. . . . I like literacy. You know, and I like readin' about different things that's goin' on in the world. You know, and I'm very inquisitive about everything. It's like I'm flexible with everything. It's the book that you somehow pick up that seems interesting to me, that catch my attention, then yes I will read it. You know, I have several books on all different kinds of things.

I do not think, though, that it was simply Vivian's attitude toward education that seemed to keep her from wanting a job at the bank--it was also her attitude toward herself. Throughout the course she seemed nervous and uncertain of her abilities. As an older re-entry woman, she seemed acutely aware that the gap in her work experience (1973-1986) was a long one, and she repeatedly asked how she should explain it to potential employers:

Vivian: So then I was wondering, well I've been out of high school what since '73? What is this '83, '89?

Interviewer: Mmhhmm.

Vivian: Uh, fifteen to sixteen years and I was wonderin' should I go back that far even though some applications said no? Do you see what I'm sayin'?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Vivian: So I was wondering if that would be a good idea? Um, do you just put (that) on a résumé.

Vivian also had some worries about her speed and abilities on the ten-key machine:

Yeah, like doin' the ten key. I can do the work, but I'm more or less accuracy than speed. . . . And uh, with speed it seems like when it's (timed) thing, it makes me nervous. But accuracy, I'm better with the accuracy than with speed. You know because I can do it in with less mistakes but it seems when I'm nervous it's a, it just gets haywire.

(. . .)

You know, mostly everything in this class so far have not been a problem for me, you know. Because even with my proof machine, you know, I can somewhat do that but I'm into accur-, accuracy, you know . . . than, uh, speed. So I figure gradually, you know, it'll take its course. You know, I can be able to do it with speed, you know, later on. Cause right now it's building up slowly but surely, and I'm-, you know, I have always been the type--some people can do it real fast and uh really don't make too many mistakes. And then you got those that have to build their way up to it. And that's the way I am.

Later in the same interview, Vivian expressed similar concerns about speed and accuracy when, after she said she had learned carpentry, she was asked if she had ever considered working as a carpenter:

Yes. I sure have. But you see, the thing in doing carpentry work, is you have to really be able to do that work in a certain amount of time. . . . It's fun to do. OK, if you are doing it for yourself, you know, because you can set your own pace, if you are doing it for your own self. But when you are doing it for other people, you really have to be good at it to be able to finish the work at a certain deadline. I do it for myself because I like doing it and I can do it at my own pace suitable for me. . . . You see with me, I like more or less doing it for myself.

Mr. Parker seemed aware of Vivian's nervousness, calling it a lack of confidence. He felt she had the speed and ability necessary to fill a proof-operator's position immediately. But Vivian was sufficiently worried about her speed that she vetoed any suggestion of an immediate bank job:

Interviewer: If Mr. Parker found you a proof-operator job, would you take it?

Vivian: To be perfectly honest? At this point I wouldn't take it right now because I know the speed that they will have to do. You know, but later on, you know, after I feel that I have built up my speed with accuracy, I would do it.

At the end of the semester, Vivian did not take the proof-operator's test, and she did not interview with Mrs. Lavelle from Bank of the Pacific. Instead, she stayed on in Mr. Parker's class for a second semester, working informally as his teacher's aide. Even after this second semester in his class, she did not attempt to get a position at the bank.

Koyendi: "I was, like, 'man, what is this?'"

Koyendi, an African American, was eighteen-years old and just out of high school when he enrolled in Mr. Parker's Banking and Finance program. He had been in California for only three years, moving with his family from suburban Chicago in time to begin his sophomore year in Oakland. His mother, who is single, decided to move to California upon the death of her mother, Koyendi's grandmother. Since she has been in California, however, she has been unable to find work and is on public assistance. Koyendi, the oldest of eight siblings, described himself in our initial interview as being "totally dependent" in terms of finances on his mother.

From the outset, it was clear that Koyendi did not plan to make a career of his work at the bank, although he took Mr. Parker's class to get a job. His long-term career goal was to become a musician, a singer/songwriter. He explained that he learned about the Banking and Finance class through his girlfriend's cousin and brother: "They were here, so they told me about it and they said you get in and he might--he line you up with a job." He says he took this class because a job is "what I need at the moment." At different times he has said he wanted to work at the bank to earn money to go to school or to "work for a while and save up enough to go back to Chicago."

Koyendi had not been happy since he moved away from Chicago. He described the difference between his life in Chicago and Oakland this way: "Oakland is like the South side of Chicago . . . you know, run down. I mean, see that's depressing. It's like living on the South side, and you can't get out. You know what I'm saying?" Having lived in suburban North Chicago, he clearly considers inner city schools and Oakland itself less desirable than Chicago, concluding, "I'm real sorry, I just want to go home."

He also found his high school experience very different in California than in Illinois. In California "like, they just give you a book, give you an assignment and a page number and that's it, you're on your own," but in Chicago, "you learned easier the way it was presented and set up for you." Also in Chicago he was allowed to choose his classes, including music classes, but in Oakland he says he was told "this is what you need and this is what you're getting." His two electives in Oakland were art and ROTC. No music. His reputation as a singer, however, won him the opportunity to try out with the school's
a cappella chorus. And despite the fact that he had not been in the regular school chorus and had not taken any music classes, he earned a place in this elite choral group.

Koyendi had had only one job prior to enrolling in Banking and Finance. Like many other students in this class, he had worked at McDonald's, and like them, he was less than enchanted with the job. Koyendi ridiculed those who thought they could make a career of working at McDonald's, and he appeared to think, as we will see later, that the bank was not a likely place for such aspirations either:

Koyendi: . . . And then the people that was there, they was like all into it and serious and I was the only one, like, "man, what is this?"

Interviewer: [laughs] They were planning to make a career out of working at McDonald's?

Koyendi: Yeah, they was like, they was looking to become manager and get-, like at the time ( ) gets $3.35 there, then you become manager you get like six dollars, five dollars an hour-

Interviewer: -yeah, yeah-

Koyendi: So they was like-, that was a big thrill to become manager.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Koyendi: So like, I didn't want to work ( ). It was like, they wanted you to perform more than what they was paying you for. You know, I was getting paid $3.35 an hour. They wanted me to cook, mop, and go downstairs and unload the truck and all this. I mean, these boxes were heavy, and then like, if you get the big racks of buns off the truck, and if you stack them wrong or something the buns on top will smash the ones on the bottom, then they say they're gonna take it out of my check. Well, at the time, at the time I was only getting like thirty-five dollars every two weeks. What are they gonna take out of my check [laughs]. I wouldn't have any more check, so I finally just got frustrated with it, and so I quit.

Mr. Parker attempted to groom Koyendi for his position in the bank, much as he did the women we have presented thus far. In accordance with current styles, Koyendi had a small braid in his hair that he had dyed orange. He also wore an earring. Mr. Parker told Koyendi that the braid had to be cut off, the hair dyed back to its natural color, and the earring removed if he hoped to get a job. He even brought Koyendi some of his son's clothing to wear to the bank interview. Koyendi seemed grateful for the help from Mr. Parker, making all the suggested changes before the interview. And Mr. Parker was pleased with his handiwork:

. . . You remember I told you I'm molding him. I'm working on him. I brought him some clothes the other day. Tie, shirt, so, "I'm, I'm gonna put you in the corporate world. When you walk out, man, people's gonna snap their heads, say look at him. . . ." Now, Koyendi's a grown man. He doesn't have to do that if he didn't want to. Koyendi believes that what I'm saying is true and I'll have to follow up.

But Mr. Parker worried about the influences that could lead Koyendi astray once he was no longer enrolled in Banking and Finance:

Mr. Parker: It's just that their friends haven't been able to come with them and that's the thing that I told you about Koyendi. How strong he is. Can he hold out? See, he's already dyed his hair, see, I'm changing. . . . How much of that can I pump in him, to keep him from deviance, 'cause those guys out there don't want to see Koyendi do that 'cause they're losing him out of the group. You follow me?

Interviewer: Where-, what will be-, he can start as proof-operator?

Mr. Parker: As proof-operator.

Interviewer: What, what do you think will, what do you think will become of him?

Mr. Parker: Hard to say. Because now, I, I, I don't-, I'm gonna lose him on a dail- on a daily basis. So now, the forces out there is what he's gonna have to fight against, and the forces I'm talking about, when he get his first paycheck, and he run up against the other brothers. Say, hey, man, let's go over near ( ). I know a couple of chicks 'round the corner-

Interviewer: -Yeah-

Mr. Parker: -the guy got some money in his pocket now, so they stop by the closest liquor store, get a six pack and two carton of cigarettes, and these girls just-

Interviewer: -Yeah.

Mr. Parker: And so here's a guy that hasn't valued the corporation yet, over uh, ( ) over pleasure-

Interviewer: -yeah-

Mr. Parker: -You follow what I'm saying?

Interviewer: So he's, he's in a little precarious spot right-

Mr. Parker: -He's in a very precarious spot 'cause they waiting on him. They waiting on him.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mr. Parker: Shit, they are waiting on him.

Interviewer: There-, there's nothing you can do?

Mr. Parker: N-No. There's nothing I can do 'cause once I turn him loose, you know, he's gone. He, he's out of my, he's out of under my wings and I-, the worst part about that, I don't even know the environment that he's in-

Interviewer: -Mmmhmm.

Mr. Parker: I know it's not a good one, 'cause I know where he lives. You know, but, he- he's gone. I-, he's gone. [laughs] It's nothing I can do about it, in a sense.

Mr. Parker realized that some of the money Koyendi made at the bank would have to go to help support his mother and siblings, so he also worried about the ultimate effect of that responsibility:

Mr. Parker: . . . so you don't know, you don't know what kind of, you don't know what kind of pressure he's gonna be under from his family, his mom, his other relatives, and so forth. And that's enough to drive him off on the deep end to start with.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mr. Parker: You know, what I mean by that, when he does get the check, check, how many different ways he gotta distribute it?

Interviewer: Yes, yes.

Mr. Parker: You, you follow what I mean?

Interviewer: Yes, uh-huh.

Mr. Parker: And, and on the same time, you said, wait a minute, you know, what am I gonna get out of this?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Mr. Parker: Uh, decision. Making a decision. And that's what I'm trying to do in this little short time is say hey, wait a minute, you gotta make some decision here. And that decision is you can't lay there when it's time to go to work. Uh, do something for yourself, you know, ( ) gonna be there, but go to work, see-

Interviewer: -yeah-

Mr. Parker: -so you can go back. You follow what I'm saying?

But Koyendi kept this job at the bank much longer than most of the other students in his cohort. Though I've been unable to speak with Koyendi myself since he started working, I've learned from follow-up interviews with other students placed at the same proof-center that Koyendi remained there, doing fine, for over a year. In September, six months after he was hired, Jackie reported that Koyendi was still at the bank, and going to school part-time at the local state university. Alma reported, after seven months, that Koyendi was still at the bank. In March of this year, eleven months after he had started at the bank, yet another student from Mr. Parker's class reported that Koyendi was one of the few students left at the bank from Mr. Parker's class. And Mr. Parker told me that he had recently seen Koyendi, with his ponytail grown back:

Mr. Parker: But they allow him to do that and fits right into him, you know?

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, he probably cut it to get the job.

Mr. Parker: Right. Just to get the job, and now, he's, he's exactly the way he should be and he's very happy there.

I am not sure how happy Koyendi is to be at the proof-center, for he had to cancel a recent follow-up interview, he said, in order to arrive on time for a job interview at a different firm. Most recently, I learned from Mr. Parker, who had heard through the grapevine, that Koyendi was no longer with the bank. However, I do not know why he left or if he left on his own or was let go. What is clear is that this student was able to stick it out much longer than most, to succeed at being a proof-operator while he went to school and/or looked for other work.

Chen: "Why I work in a bank? . . . That's hard question."

Like Koyendi, Chen went through Mr. Parker's Banking and Finance course and not only got a position in the bank, but also kept the job for a significant period of time. To my knowledge, he is still working at the bank. Also like Koyendi, Chen was interested in work at the bank not as an entry-level position from which he would launch a career in banking, but as a way to gain some knowledge useful to a student interested in a career in business, and also as a way to support his attendance at the local state university.

Chen lives in Oakland with his parents and younger brother. He had graduated from an Oakland high school in 1985, specializing in electronics, and then had attended a community college where he took eleven units of computer courses and learned to use IBM personal computers. He was twenty-one at the time he entered Gateway College and Mr. Parker's program. He told us that he planned to take business accounting and maybe history at Gateway College, eventually transferring to a four-year university for a B.A. Previously he had worked as a clerk for the local school district and in a goldfish store. When asked why he wanted to work in a bank, he responded that banks give "good benefits" (which, by the way, was one of the answers Mr. Parker primed his students to give during their interviews--despite the fact that most proof-operators are part-timers and, thus, get no benefits). Although Chen thought of his work at the bank only as a way to support his educational goals, he also hoped to work his way up at least to the position of teller while he was there.

In an interview with Mr. Parker nine months after Chen was hired by the bank, I learned that Chen was not only succeeding as a proof-operator, but was excelling. He earned bonuses because of his speed and accuracy:

My Chinese student, Chen, came in at the beginning of the semester and he told me he had worked fifty-one hours. They get time-and-a-half over forty. See? So, hell, Chen had a pocket full of money (laughs) you know, my little Chinese student. And he says, "Oh, Mr. Parker, I like this, this is nice," (laughs) you know. I says, " What are you gonna do next?" I mean that's not-and I introduced Chen to the class. This is Chen. Tell 'em Chen, what's going on. And Chen is now doing fourteen hundred items per hour and, and, and they only ask for twelve. He says, hell, I do fourteen hundred and I'll walk around and talk to people, on the proof-machine, see? And they pay you an incentive, see. He get the-, that's the reason he came by. They gave him a day off with pay, uh, and they, they give you some sort of little bonus, you know, after you, you master this, so on and so forth.

Although Chen was obviously very successful at proof-operating, he had not moved to tellering, a position in which he had shown interest while in Banking and Finance. This probably had to do with language. When Chen was interviewed, he often hesitated and sometimes failed to answer questions, though I knew he was not the type of student to challenge me, directly or indirectly. The difficulty seemed to be with English--either understanding my questions or finding the words and phrases to answer them. Early on in the first interview he even said, as he hesitated, "I don't know how to say it." Here is an excerpt from an interview with Chen to illustrate this phenomenon:

Interviewer: So do you like being a proof-operator?

Chen: Well, it's um [laughs] well I think so because those uh . . . it was, mmm hmm hmm, I don't know how to say it. Mmm, yep.

(. . .)

Interviewer: What made you decide to go into banking?

Chen: What made you. . . ?

Interviewer: [laughs]

Chen: ( ) I have to think about.

Interviewer: Yeah, you're the one person, you know when you, um, that first day when you wrote that little blurb about yourself, you're the only person who said that you thought that banking was good for your future.

Chen: [laughs]

Interviewer: I was wondering, especially after you ( ). What, what were you thinking when you went to the other community college? What kind of job you wanted to get.

Chen: Um, first thing, I went to Douglas, I tried to my, get my major in computer science. Interviewer: Uh huh

Chen: And then I changed my mind.

Interviewer: How come?

Chen: [laughs] How come?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Chen: I don't know, I just changed my mind. Go back to business.

(. . .)

Interviewer: What is it about a bank that you like working there?

Chen: Hmm?

Interviewer: Why do you like working at a bank?

Chen: Why?

Interviewer: Yeah. You know that's, last Wednesday I was talking to a couple people

Chen: Mmhmm.

Interviewer: From Bank of the Pacific, Western Bank and they were tellin' me what kind of questions they ask when they interview, and one of the main ones was "Why do you wanna work in a bank?" So.

Chen: How would you answer?

Interviewer: Yeah, how would you answer, how would you answer that?

Chen: Why I work in a bank? [laughs]

Interviewer: Mmhmm.

Chen: [laughs] Well, um, because I can challenged, I can get challenged, you know, and then um make, well [laughs, long pause]. That's hard question.

The repeating of questions, the long pauses, the nervous laughter, and the short answers in this interview transcript, all suggest a student who is having difficulty producing English. His behavior in class also suggested that he was uncomfortable speaking English, since he chose to sit in one of the back corners of the room and rarely spoke up in front of the class. Finally, an essay Chen wrote on the first day of class revealed his rudimentary English writing skills. We reproduce in typed form below the short paragraph with its original spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. On the original there were also numerous cross-outs and scribbles.

My name is Chen. I gruated from STAFFORD HIGH SCHOOL. I got Depolma from Staford HIGH SCHOOL. My skill I.B.M. BASIC personal computer. I get in Banking class about few month. Because I realy interesing in Banking. I think the Best way in my futrue.

Mrs. Lavelle helps us understand how an employee like Chen, who has difficulty producing oral and written English, could be such a successful proof-operator. She also suggests, however, that such an employee might have difficulty moving into customer service positions:

Mrs. Lavelle: I guess this was last year; we hired some students from here that, uh, their language, even though, I should say-, uh, their communication skills, verbal communication skills were poor, but they passed the test.

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah.

Mrs. Lavelle: And they're working.

Interviewer: Ahh [laughter]. So, so-

Mrs. Lavelle: -see, as a proof-operator, the verbal of it isn't that important, as long as they can understand, and they can read.

Interviewer: So the speaking didn't matter there?

Mrs. Lavelle: No, but as, see, but, OK, in order for them to-, uh, let's say, move into other areas, then they should stay in school, work on their, uh, you know, uh, communication skills, the verbal part of it, and, uh, then they can move on because, see, a lot of our jobs do require using the telephone.

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, OK, all right, so-, yeah, so you'd be expecting to see some development in those- those people.

Mrs. Lavelle: Right, and the-, and, and, and, uh, most of them do.

Interviewer: Mmhmm, mmhmm.

Mrs. Lavelle: You know, they end up mastering the Eng- the English language.

As Mrs. Lavelle talked more about other proof-operators, it became apparent that not talking too much was in fact an asset in getting this job. She told me about a student who was too "disruptive," asking lots of questions during the proof test and the interview. This student was not hired, despite his dexterity. Mr. Parker certainly recognized the usefulness of keeping quiet. He once commented,

I'm trying to prepare them through, what I call, human relations. One must be able to get along with other people. Gotta bend. This is a give and take society that we live in. You catch more flies with sugar than you do with salt. . . . I don't agree with it. I think it's lousy. It was there when I was there. I made it through. It was tough. You keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open [laughs]. Somebody, somebody give you a helping hand, grab it, don't throw it away.

Predictably, Chen's English language performance did not interfere with his job as a proof-operator, where interpersonal skills and customer service are not central. I do know, however, that Chen has not moved or been promoted to another job during his two years at the proof-center. This might be because of his English, or perhaps he has been content, as Mr. Parker believes, to improve his already quick proofing speed and collect his incentive pay while continuing to be a part-time student.

[3]Throughout this report I have used direct quotes extensively in an attempt to let the voices of participants come through. Most often, these quotes are verbatim transcriptions, but on occasion I have eliminated, for ease of reading, back channel cues such as "uh" and "you know" where these omissions did not seem to me to obscure anything of significance in the interaction. Throughout I have used the following transcription conventions:

- interruptions, overlaps
. . . within sections, omitted talk
(. . .) between sections, omitted talk
[laughing] commentary to help explain dialogue
(I hope) researcher's best guess
( ) incomprehensible speech
oh no emphasized by speaker

Hull, G. (1992). "Their Chances? Slim and None":An Ethnographic Account of the Experiences of Low-Income People of Color in a Vocational Program and at Work (MDS-155). Berkeley: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California.