Archive for the ‘drug recovery’ Category
November 22, 2010
It’s the week of Thanksgiving and the community is busy cooking more turkeys in a week than most of us will in our lifetime. Many of these are being prepared for a local homeless shelter. All the women were missing from my class today. Someone said they were out together getting their hair done. I wonder what beauty school they went to or if a salon donated their services. It’s the first I’ve heard of this in my many years teaching at this site but no field trip would surprise me. Sometimes this place does feel like summer camp for felons. One wonders why anyone would ever leave.
Bart left this weekend. He didn’t seem restless on Friday when he was in my class. Sometimes a resident will leave just before a holiday to try to see their family or their dealer. Last week Bart drew me a lizard resting on a melting eyeball for the small gallery I have of student artwork. He might still be using his drug of choice, LSD. Bart claims to have taken LSD more times this year than the number of turkeys we are cooking.
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July 23, 2010
In the week I have not written, Sequoia relapsed on heroin, Winton started drinking and Ricky took his first paycheck and smoked it up on crack. Here’s the good news. My student Z is finally enrolled to take the GED in August. It’s her third and last time at the rehab and getting her GED could be life changing. She has a mind for social studies and math and she writes well, really loves learning. Her self-esteem goes up by increments and then plummets pretty quickly. She went swimming the other day and told me how she barely got through a whole lap. She struggled the last ten feet because of severe obesity and general lack of exercise. But I give her credit for getting in the pool. I told her, “This is like the GED. After you have tackled three hours of math and writing, they will hit you with science, reading, and social studies. It will feel like the last ten feet in the pool. But you can do it. Put the pencil down every 50 minutes and stretch you hands, close your eyes and take a breath, then pick up the pencil and start fresh. Don’t be a tired tester, don’t leave half the test section for the last ten minutes allotted.” I added, “You’re ready this time.”
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May 28, 2010
Coffee is my drug of choice. When new students enroll in my class I ask them their drug of choice. It’s part of our intake questionnaire. Caffeine is not an option on the form.
P.N. Witt, a German pharmacologist, researched the effect of caffeine and other psychoactive drugs on spiders in 1948. The study was repeated by NASA in 1995. I am astonished by the haphazard shape of the web built by the caffeinated spider. It has no center, no focus; it’s the result of effort without a clear definition or structure. It’s me at work multi-tasking.
I know what you are asking. How did they get the spider to drink so much coffee? Actually, ” The drugs were administered by dissolving them in sugar water, and a drop of solution was touched to the spider’s mouth. In some later studies, spiders were fed with drugged flies.” The jury is still out on whether coffee is good for us or not. But I couldn’t weave this here web without it.
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March 17, 2010
My students are big on emoting. After working for about an hour on reading comprehension, Linda said, “I’m sprung.” “Is it the coffee?” I asked. Being “sprung” is not uncommon for addicts, especially crack and meth users. It’s a feeling of not being able to stay in your seat, a kind of restless mind-body syndrome, along with some anxiety. “Can I clean the classroom?” Linda asked. “Okay,” I tell her, “here are some antibacterial wipes, go ahead and clean some of the computer keyboards.” Students have told me more than once that being in my school gave them the space they needed to stay in recovery. I wish I could get a little sprung (on coffee), it might help me clean my house.
Whoops, I was confusing being sprung with being spun. Being spun is that constant restlessness I see in addicts. Being sprung is a state of intense desire and obsession for someone. Coffee in general will not get you sprung. I think my student was saying she was very horny, so it’s a little strange that I had her clean my keyboards.
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February 19, 2010
My students have a hard time remembering. Many have spent the better part of their life doing drugs. So I am always open to strategies to help them remember all the formulas and rules that go into doing even simple math. I’ve developed what I call Jailhouse Math. Jailhouse Math is not approved by my program. It is a way in for my students and they get it. I teach fractions by using the prison bunk as an example. The heavier “cellie” usually gets the bottom bunk. Let’s call him Heavy-D, the denominator. The lighter guy is Numero Uno, he gets the top bunk, the numerator. Sometimes the two cellmates weigh the same or the heavier guy ends up on the top bunk, this is called Improper.
One of my students, Eric likes to teach on the board. Today he used an example of Jailhouse Math to explain perimeter. He drew a house that he said was a crack house. He said the inside where everyone was dealing and smoking rock is the area. Then he showed that the police had shown up. He said they had the place surrounded, he explained the police were on the perimeter. Nice work, Eric.
Posted in adult education, drug recovery, education, GED, math, parolees, prison, students, teacher | 1 Comment »
February 15, 2010
Last Friday I put out art supplies for my students to make Valentines. I was struck by how busy the crafts table was. In prison, myriad art practices and ideas for homemade cards get passed on, especially amongst the men. One of my students made a half-dozen cards to sell to other residents at the rehab. Another student constructed cards with suspended photographs on hidden threads that spin inside a heart-shaped cut-out when you lightly blow on them.
The pest control man also came to spray the resident’s housing. Several of the women brought their fish bowls over to my classroom so the fish would not be exposed to the toxins. So today my classroom was full of big tattooed guys cutting on pink paper and colorful Japanese Fighting Fish swimming in faceted containers.
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February 9, 2010
Several of my students will be out tomorrow getting their teeth pulled. These extractions will be done for free by university dental students. Needless to say many of my students have destroyed their gums by smoking crack or meth. Recovery isn’t just about avoiding old habits, it’s about confronting and working on the devastation caused by old habits.
I had my first dental scaling last Sunday and was reminded of trepanning and other archaic medical practices. I asked the hygienist if the scraping was harmful to the teeth. “Oh no,” she said, “it’s like removing the barnacles from the bottom of a boat.”
So now my mouth is seaworthy.
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February 4, 2010
Today I read an affirmation to my class. It was from a book of daily affirmations from the mid-eighties. Then I handed the book to a student to read aloud. I need to remind myself to let the students read aloud and short affirmations, simple and direct, are a great start. It’s easy to be the teacher on the pulpit. I asked my students what they think their children do most often after school. Watch TV or play video games was the common answer. “Not like us, we were getting our exercise gang banging,” one of my female students said. “Yeah, we never sat down,” another chimed in. “I wonder if there isn’t some activity between watching television and gang banging,” I asked them. Back to math, time to study ratio and proportions for the GED.
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February 2, 2010
My school is inside a drug rehab for adults just out of prison. The entire community is in a week-long workshop. Some students will come to school to get out of the workshop and others will ask to get out of school to attend the workshop. Either is fine. I like to sit in on the gathering, drop in for fifteen minutes. Today they were showing a documentary on the big flat screen. They said for every 200 men in prison, there were approximately 700-900 children missing a father on the outside. I couldn’t stop thinking about this. Even when my students are on the outside they often fail to parent their children. The children are the forgotten victims of the criminal system, of drug use, of crime. I give my students clear-vue binders and they most often use them to display photos of their family and friends. It’s like a bunch of teenagers decorating their notebooks.
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January 31, 2010
I left a little late today and noticed a squad car parked just beyond the driveway that leads to the rehab community. One of my students – at least I think it was Roland — was standing with his back to me. Two police officers stood on either side of him and his hands were cuffed behind him which made him appear much broader in the back. The door to the car was open and the police were about to push him inside. I had to pass them on the way out but didn’t look at Roland. This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen one of my students arrested. It’s an odd sight but I always remind myself it’s better than seeing them in a coffin. Roland was a quiet, hardworking student. He had come in for about an hour on Friday. On Fridays I play Oldies during class if the students have been quiet all week. Shooby Dooby.
Update: It seems it wasn’t Roland being arrested last Friday. In trying to be discreet I made an assumption. I can jump to conclusions as quick as anyone with our prison population, something I have spent a decade trying to temper. Turns out, a fellow was trying to get into the rehab unauthorized. Beyond our gates is food, shelter, safety and community. As for me lesson learned once again.
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