My tutoring session this week left me pondering many topics: the quality of a person, the justice system, education, and most of all a world within a world. I wanted to dive into these issues today but without proper research I don’t think I can analyze much. All I can do is try to determine what brought on these thoughts and how I see them in my sessions as a positive or negative.
To begin with I want to state for the record that I tutored two new prisoners last week with Alonna. One of them the youngest person in the prison, 19 years old. This is what got the wheels turning in my head. 19, is so young. My goodness I was 19 two years ago. How could this be? He is going for his GED, and all I could think was if someone just got to him in time he wouldn’t be here. If someone, or an idea had reached out he would not be there. Young enough to pass for high school but old enough to go to ‘grownup’ jail. How does one determine where an 18-19 year old goes? So young but legally ‘adult’ and to feel the burden of a maximum penitentiary must be a quick way to grow up. Any last moments of childhood disappear and the beginning of manhood ripped away. He is a sponge to learn which leads me to my next point: education.
Perhaps it is the reality of confinement but these men take to learning and education like bees to honey. It is a determination I only saw in honor students in high school. The tutoring sessions are optional and that time could be spent in the yard instead. I have had some experience in elementary and middle school classrooms that I know the makings of a good teacher and the signs of a student in trouble. I don’t claim to have all the right techniques but I know when someone needs a kind word or reinforcement. And there is ‘blood’ on everyone’s hand who didn’t reach out to him. Yes he might have been a difficult youth but the idealist in me wants to believe that someone could have stepped in.
The discussion we began with revolved around three pieces we read by Langston Hughes, Tupac Shakur, and Maya Angelou. All three about facing adversity as a black person. The class was bigger this time around and a lot of new faces were present. We didn’t get a discussion to flow but a few thoughtful comments were made. One inmate asked if Alonna brought in these pieces because they were black and in jail. She expected the question and answered it with poise stating “no, these are some of my favorites and I wanted to share them”. They said to us that they obviously related to the idea of trying to overcome a hard situation, being black, and understood the meaning. It seemed as though one man was controlling the direction of the discussion and others who had other views could not speak. I could not help but think they were testing their waters and our motives. This type of behavior was exactly what I was waiting for. It symbolized the end of ‘getting to know yous’ and diving into the deeper issues. And I knew that if I ever doubted my reason to be there it would have to happen now or I could not turn back.
This swaying and persuasion of discussion by one person or a group of people is common in many classes but this taught Alonna and me that we needed to find interesting and unique subjects to discuss for the next weeks. I also thought about the inner workings of the societies within the prison system playing itself out, and even dissolving when we get into tutoring groups. If two men who don’t talk or get along need help in reading comprehension and I am the tutor well they will have to deal with sitting at the same table.
We broke up into groups and Alonna and I began to work with two men. One a man who looks to be in his early thirties and the young man I wrote about. We began to work from the GED book and teaching them about sentence structures, fragments, compound sentences and comma use. It began with Alonna and I explaining the passages and rules but then it progressed into something more. There was participation, active analysis, and learning on the part of the inmate. I was extremely impressed. I don’t know if they knew each other but by the middle of our tutoring they began to help each other out answering, explaining and identifying problems with sentence structures.
A question for myself to examine at further sessions and keep in mind while I research is if the classroom is considered a different place than the prison they live in? Do they become students who have to cooperate in the same classroom with fighting and being part of one group/gang doesn’t matter anymore? Or does it exist on a level I cannot see yet? I want to know if a power struggle in prison could seep into the classroom but on an intellectual level. All interesting things to look into.
I would assume that those inmates farsighted or hopeful enough to further pursue their education, which they most likely neglected in their time on the outside,would be less apt to bring prison conflicts into the classroom. At the same time, I am curious as to what role prison gangs and the pressures of conformity play on the students ability to be truly free and unencumbered when you discuss certain issues. Just a thought. This must be quite an experience.
ReplyDeleteYes it is and thank you so much for posting. I don't see the issues or conflicts but like you posted I am sure that pressures do exist. Which is why I wonder if they come out in dialogue or the comments/positions they take. This last week's discussion was very open and uninhibited from my point of view. But I am sure that many of the men would have liked to say more but for a variety of reasons didn't.
ReplyDeleteI would like to say though that the behavior and general motivation during discussions and readings is superb. Comparable to an advanced university course. I am in a 100 level discussion course now and I have to say the passion, dedication, preparedness, and attentiveness pales in comparison to Auburn. The students in my course need to take a look at Auburn and jrealize how lucky they are.
I think the question that comes to mind here is what is the difference between learning because someone tells you to do so (mom, dad, teacher) and learning because your life and livelihood depends on it (survivance). I think this embodies the difference in atittude mentioned. I see this all the time when I teach community classes or groups versus "school learning" classes in college. College students can take or leave learning--they aren't locked up in a huge prison knowing that their only hope might be an education that could get them a job. Most college students expect opportunity or at least hope for it. Many prisoners know that they will have to fight/struggle for opportunity and that it might not ever come.
ReplyDeleteI think self-sponsored learning and drive is undervalued in our society. Teachers are supposed to make students want to learn--that's important, but overvalued. What makes a difference is someone who really wants to learn--who knows that his/her life will depend on knowing, learning, and is driven by that passion.
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