Education From the Inside Out: A Plea for Prison Education

Dec 20, 2011 No Comments

By Baz Dreisinger

In a decade of teaching, I have approached many a semester’s end wistfully: another goodbye to students I have, week after week, intellectually bonded with. But this semester, wistful feels more like the blues.

I am soon to be exiled from pedagogical heaven: an English 101 class so academically voracious, they rendered my job effortless. My students not only read the material and took extensive notes on it, they read material weeks before I’d assigned it. They arrived armed with studied opinions about each text and page numbers containing relevant passages to shore up these opinions; they begged me for additional grammar worksheets and requested feedback on work they’d assigned themselves. When we read one particular Ralph Ellison essay, they groaned about how many times the piece had driven them to the dictionary, and I held back tears of joy: Oh for a roomful of students who studiously look up words they don’t understand!

Convicts Against Cancer

Dec 19, 2011 No Comments

By Michael Flinner

There are many forms of death sentence. The cruelest ones fall squarely upon the lives of those who don’t deserve them.

Cancer will touch the lives of every single living person at one time or another, either by directly affecting them, a friend or a loved one. No one is spared, young or old.

This is a tribute to the living memories of all of those who have endured the ravages of this destroyer of life and we at DeathRowInmate.org wish to speak our love and hope to the lives of those who have touched us, and whose bravery and dignity continue to inspire us.

The "Coach Talk"

Dec 16, 2011 No Comments

Trust is a big issue. It takes time for me to earn it, and it never happens automatically. They see me as the “police”. They don’t trust anyone, including themselves, and they will tell me that.

Sometimes I acknowledge this to them, because they think I don’t understand them. I’ll say, “I know you probably see me as an old lady who doesn’t know anything, who’s just going to give you trouble. And given a little time, you’ll find out that’s not true.”

I try to encourage them to stick with it for at least one month. “Let’s go a month at a time.” Ninety percent of the time, if they stick with it, they calm down and life in the classroom is fine.

Obvious Truths We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring Series (Part 6)

Dec 15, 2011 No Comments

This is the sixth blog post in the ‘Obvious Truths We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring Series.’ This series is based upon eight ‘Obvious Truths’ presented by Alfie Kohn in his “Ten Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring,” published in the September 2011 issue of The Education Digest. “Students are more likely to succeed where they

Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy

Dec 14, 2011 No Comments

San Bernardino County, California, is currently ranked as the 3rd highest county with gang activity nationwide, with 40,558 gang members. Wow! Those are huge numbers. It appears that many of these gang members are at-risk youth headed toward potential crime and eventual incarceration, putting yet more burden on the already over-taxed California prison system. In

Obvious Truths We Shouldn't Be Ignoring Series (Part 5)

Dec 13, 2011 No Comments

This is the fifth blog post in the ‘Obvious Truths We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring Series.’ This series is based upon eight ‘Obvious Truths’ presented by Alfie Kohn in his “Ten Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring” published in the September 2011 issue of The Education Digest. “Just because doing x raises standardized test scores

Prison History

Dec 12, 2011 No Comments

Prison is a concept that most people rarely give much thought. Throughout history, imprisonment or incarceration was not used as punishment. Instead, prison was simply a place to confine and hold criminals until corporal or capital punishment could be administered. The Bible mentions prisons in Jerusalem. Even the story of Joseph, who most people associate

Prison Dharma Network

Dec 11, 2011 No Comments

Many incarcerated prisoners are looking to heal themselves and transform to become a contributing member of society. Options in prison for accomplishing this can be very limiting, creating a downward spiral of lack of confidence and self-worth for the prisoner. In 1989, a federal prisoner named Fleet Maull, founded the Prison Dharma Network. The mission

The Actors Gang-Prison Project

Dec 10, 2011 No Comments

Imagine a way to be able to express yourself in a safe and physical way while incarcerated in prison? That is what The Actors Gang brings to prison inmates incarcerated in Southern California. This group of professional actors are diligently working to keep the arts alive in community, including prisoners, after-school programs and performances for

Home For Wayward Girls

Dec 9, 2011 No Comments

Her name was Janie Porter. She was born just as the American Civil War came to a close. Growing up in Macon, Georgia, Janie was an exemplary student, eventually graduating with honors from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Janie took her teaching degree seriously, accepting a position in rural Georgia. Five years later, she met

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Education From the Inside Out: A Plea for Prison Education

Convicts Against Cancer

The "Coach Talk"

Obvious Truths We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring Series (Part 6)

Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy

Obvious Truths We Shouldn't Be Ignoring Series (Part 5)

Prison History

Prison Dharma Network

The Actors Gang-Prison Project

Home For Wayward Girls

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