A number of adult basic education (ABE) students who had spent time in both traditional, group-paced ABE or high school equivalency programs and experimental individualized learning conditions were interviewed concerning their preferences with respect to these two instructional approaches. The following three conclusions emerged from the interviews: ABE students who return to school after bad experiences as children or adolescents are keenly aware of their previous educational failures; even for those who can handle the academic challenges of ABE, problems often arise in coping with the dual roles of adult and student; and adult students often have extenuating health or family pressures that necessitate special accommodation efforts on the part of instructors. Data from these interviews and from other studies suggest that it is not personal inadequacies but rather school-related problems that are responsible for most withdrawals from ABE programs; these data underscore the need for treating adult students as individuals and providing adult learners with learning choices so that they may (1) remove themselves from frustrating or boring situations, (2) adjust when other responsibilities demand priority, and (3) exercise the same self-direction in learning that they both enjoy and are expected to use in other areas of their lives. (MN)