Archive for the ‘drug recovery’ Category
December 29, 2012
Edgar made it to the GED and passed! I brought the class cupcakes. Then Edgar went home on a weekend pass and decided to celebrate his achievement by going on a methamphetamine binge. He crawled back to me looking a bit unshaven, the young man with the perfect goatee whom I had photographed in cap and gown just a week earlier. I admit I was disappointed in Edgar. Wasn’t the diploma enough? I have to re-enroll him so I gave him his former intake sheets to check. When I reviewed them later I noticed he left his grade level at 9th grade, didn’t bother to check the box for GED.
Now that Edgar has his GED I have to design a different curriculum for his 40 hours, the mandatory required in our particular program. It’s difficult to help someone climb a ladder only to have to pick them up again at the bottom. How do you make that ladder appealing now? Edgar told me he wants to move to Alaska when he discharges parole, to work in the oil industry. So I told him, “You need to read the classics,” and handed him Jack London’s Call of the Wild. I also directed him to an online literary guide that outlines the book’s characters and setting, with discussion and questions. I’m not finished helping Edgar but he’s got to help himself, break from the pack, the streets, crystal meth.
Posted in adult education, drug recovery, education, GED, meth | Tagged GED, parole, rehab and recovery, Self-help | Leave a Comment »
April 17, 2012
In the school where I work, every new student must go through an intake process that includes me asking them questions about their drug use and criminal history. The forms I fill out are important to the tracking and funding of our program and I always see this initial interview as an opportunity to get to know my students. On some days their words start to wash over me as the clients at the rehab often digress into personal tales.
“I have a detective coming to talk with me about being raped.” “I used meth and PCP together.” “The car accident, I can’t remember well.” “Seizures.” “I’ve been shot.” “I’m not here for drugs, I’ve had a terrible loss.” No one tells me they shot, robbed or beat someone — confessing their own misdeeds is a thin line few cross.
I have to remind myself that I am here to teach these guys and gals reading, writing and arithmetic. I’m not a social worker or a counselor, but I’m still empathic, intaking it all personally.
Posted in adult education, community, crime, drug recovery, education | Tagged parole, rehab and recovery | Leave a Comment »
March 13, 2012
(Fast-forward: I am now teaching in a treatment center serving homeless men and women on parole)
I have worked in other drug rehab facilities where adults toting stuffed animals were the norm. In the mid-1990s I subbed in a hospital treatment center for juveniles where the residents were required to carry a stuffed animal the first 30 days of the program. Stuffies make us feel secure. Using a teddy bear is healthier than using drugs or alcohol, which many do to suppress their emotional insecurities. So I wasn’t surprised when Xavier showed up today with a well-worn teddy bear wearing a rainbow necklace around its belly.
Xavier is my strongest GED candidate yet. But I have had to refer him to a therapist for his suicidal thoughts and depression. He is so strong in math and reading that I am having him read self-help books to boost his confidence rather than sit drilling on geometry.
It’s a fine line between success and failure for this population. They often don’t follow through at the last minute. They don’t just get cold feet, they get frostbite requiring amputation. I’m hoping I can get Xavier funded to take the GED in April, that he will complete his diploma. Convincing the GED examination board to let him bring in a teddy bear is another story.
Posted in adult education, drug recovery, GED, parolees, rehab | Tagged GED, Self-help, Teddy Bear | 1 Comment »
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.
Posted in drug recovery, parolees, relapse, students | Leave a Comment »
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.”
Posted in adult education, drug recovery, GED, parolees, rehab, relapse | Leave a Comment »
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.
Posted in coffee, drug recovery, education, parolees | Leave a Comment »
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.
Posted in drug recovery, meth, parolees, rehab | Leave a 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.
Posted in drug recovery, education, handicrafts, parolees, prison, students | Leave a Comment »
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.
Posted in adult education, drug recovery, meth, parolees, rehab, students | Leave a Comment »
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.
Posted in drug recovery, education, gangs, parolees | Leave a Comment »
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