February 17, 2010
Carlos knocked on the back door of my school today. “Can I come in? You know I split and I’m not supposed to be here but I was wondering if you could look up my scores on the GED test I took two weeks ago?” Carlos looked different. He had cut off his dark curls, he looked…conservative. He told me he was living with his family and had a good job. I looked up his scores. He passed all five sections of the GED, but he failed the exam because he was short 20 points. Carlos scored 2230 and he needed a score of 2250 to pass. His average was 446 and you need a 450 overall to pass. Heartbreaking.
Still, he was optimistic. We both agreed he should retake the writing section. He blamed his low score in this area on a malfunctioning pen they gave him. “I gave you a brand new pen for the test,” I said as I handed him my card. “Call me when you get the results on the re-test.”
Carlos giggled. It’s odd to hear a grown man giggle but I got used to it and will even miss it a little.
Posted in adult education, education, GED, parolees, students, teacher, Uncategorized | 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.
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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 7, 2010
While surfing the web I ran into this announcement: “The Museum of Criminal Anthropology, dedicated to Cesare Lombroso, has reopened after years of restoration and access to specialist researchers only. The institution was founded by Lombroso in 1898 under the name ‘The Museum of Psychiatry and Criminology,’ documenting his beliefs and research into detecting criminality through physiognomy.” You can now see this collection for yourself but you will have to fly to Turin, Italy. How you feel about this kind of pathologizing is another thing. Here’s some history: “For many years, Lombroso’s text on the female criminal would have great influence. It described the female offender as worse than male offenders, contending that they had more masculine than feminine characteristics. Lombroso also popularized the notion of a ‘born criminal’ which represents an extreme statement of biological determinism which had great influence well into the 20th Century.” The Museum of Criminal Anthropology serves as a reminder of a past that must be known but never repeated.
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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.
Posted in drug recovery, education, gangs, parolees | Leave a Comment »
February 3, 2010
Carlos is taking the GED exam tomorrow. I gave him several new pencils to take with him, solid cedar, not like those inferior “Depot” pencils. He was definitely a little nervous, coming and going today, not knowing what to do with himself. I told him to relax. He’s studied for over 250 hours and passed every section of the Pre-GED. Carlos is only 24. He has the potential to get his diploma and move on. I was trying to think of some success stories over the years, students who got out of the system for good and closed the door behind them. Students who went to art school, who entered the university, became drug counselors, they are the exceptions. Parolees who got their GED stand out. I’ve seen real progress. Maybe Carlos will become an X-Ray tech or maybe he will work in the oil fields like others in his family.
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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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January 29, 2010
Carlos is excited. He will take his GED exam on Tuesday. He’s spent 250 hours preparing for the test in my school. But as he reminds me I am not enough help when it comes to math. He has fellow residents at the rehab helping him around the clock. He got a hold of a white-board erasable marker and is practicing pre-algebra on the mirror in his room. I imagine them all gathered around the mirror: “A minus-minus is a plus. Any number to the zero power is one.” And you thought addicts only used mirrors to snort cocaine? Carlos giggles when he gets a question right, as if you just gave him candy. I’m anticipating his big day too. Stay tuned, the test is just around the corner.
Posted in drug recovery, education, GED, parolees, rehab, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
January 26, 2010
My mom called today a little panicked. It seems someone had taken her ATM card number and drained her checking account. When I hear about such violations against my own family I think of my job and how I have to look past my students’ iniquities in order to help them. My job requires blinders rather than non-judgement. The blinders are in place because when the adults I teach walk through my door they are students first, not criminals and drug addicts. I don’t treat drug addiction, I help improve math skills. I have a theory that math can help in recovery from drugs because math requires a drug addict to use a very specific part of the brain that is in counterpoint to the dopamine-releasing, pleasure-seeking area of the limbic system addicts have been accessing for most of their lives. More math, less meth. Make sense? When one of my students tells me they are bored, I say great, welcome to the real world where dollars add up because you earned them.
Posted in atm fraud, drug recovery, meth, parolees, pink elephants, rehab, students, teacher | Leave a Comment »
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