how has the internship exposed me to the tasks and problems of prison education?
Although I went into the internship knowing several issues present in prison education and its implementation, it was not until I was at Florence and interacting with the students in my class that I realized just how huge some issues are. There is a general sense of ignorance regarding certain subjects, especially Shakespeare. It posed sort of a challenge to Gabby and I when we first began teaching the class, because it required us to go over small details – like how Shakespeare uses puns, foreshadowing, the art of the sonnet – in the beginning before we could even start with a play.
- Week 1: I was actually surprised at how much they didn't know about Shakespeare, even Romeo and Juliet. They knew the name, and some of the basic facts, but very little was actually there. Or the case may be that they did know, they just didn't want to admit to it. There was a little knowledge about Hamlet and Macbeth, but other than that they didn't know much.
One of the biggest issues we faced, however, was the constantly fluctuating number of students. At the beginning of the semester, our roster said we would have eleven students. Only six showed up that day, and then three more the next week. However, over time, the numbers dwindled down to our last four.
- Week 2: I was caught off guard by the three new students that were sitting in our class and waiting for us when we arrived in the morning. What seemed to be worse was that they were from the tents, and Travis and his group were not very receptive of them, the same way they seemed to keep separate from Bruce the week before.
What was the worst was the division in our class between Travis’ group (including Steveo, Mikey and Victor) and the rest of the class. It seemed worse than a high school setting in our classroom for some weeks, because Steveo’s group were passive-aggressively mean to the other students, belittling them for comments they would make or if they were concerned about missing lunch. It was difficult for Gabby and I to respond to these sort of attacks, and ultimately I did not. I just tried to be nice to everyone equally and give people looks when they made nasty comments. I was definitely unprepared for the cliquish atmosphere we encountered early on, and did not realize that it would be quiet as bad as it was. In the end, only Travis, Steveo, Mikey and Luis were left in our class; luckily Luis was transferred into the same area as the other three part way through the semester. It was as if this transfer and his inability to be affected by the other three made him neutral to them. Or it was that as a class, they learned that they had to work with each other and had to learn to put up with the situation, because without even one person, the performance couldn’t happen.
Another problem we ran into during the course of the semester was the need for censorship on certain subjects/areas. One of our biggest concerns was the deputy warden and her desire to be more a part of the program and understand what was going on. While I was more than happy to help, the need to censor issues like homosexuality, gang related topics and violence was difficult when selecting a Shakespeare play. Although Merchant of Venice seemed like the best choice, there was still the issue of cross-dressing that made us wary of our choice.
Letter: We are having the students rewrite the play into their own words. I have attached the script of what they have written so far. There are three main female roles, which if you would prefer my partner and I could act out instead of the students; our biggest concern is that at least one of the roles is very large and important to the play, which we don't want to deprive the students of. Granted, we will not force the role on the students if they do not want to act it.
The lack of response to this email did not endear the situation to me; to be restricted and unable to get responses to questions or concerns that were made big by the administration was frustrating at times. With the performance so close, Gabby, the students and I decided to continue practicing with the students taking two out of three of the female roles. However, if I ever received any response, I knew that this would have to change; because if we did not listen to rules and requests, I feared the program would be unable to continue.
An issue I did not anticipate coming into the program was our students’ desire to keep in contact with us. On two different occasions we were asked if we could stay in touch by one or two of our students, and we had to say no due to the contracts we signed at the beginning of the semester. I had not anticipated wanting to stay in contact with anyone, or that anyone would want to stay in contact with us. It was harder than I thought it would be to turn the students down.
- Week 3: …one of our students came up to us and was asking us our plans for after graduation. When a CO began talking to Gabby, the student came up to me and told me he's getting out of Florence next summer and he wants to go to school. I was very encouraging and told him that he absolutely should. He then asked me if he could see me once he gets out. My heart broke, because I cannot, and I told him so; that it's a violation of my contract. He was obviously hurt by that too.
- Week 9: Steveo and Mikey stayed and got very red in the face while saying good bye. I felt so bad when we had to tell them we more than likely would not be able to write, even though they asked over and over again for us to double check. While I managed to play it cool while we were saying good bye, I felt increasingly distraught as we were walking away through the yard and our students seemed to follow us out, calling after us and still saying good bye. It was hard to drive away that day, knowing we would not be able to see them again or contact them. It makes me sad, because I truly would like to see how they turn out, and I wish I could continue to send them words of encouragement.
What was probably most frustrating of all, despite all these different situations we had to face, was the lack of motivation to do the homework we assigned the students. Although we tried to keep the work minimal and simple, very few actually did the work occasionally, and only Mikey did it consistently. Because we are not in a school and we do not give grades, Gabby and I were faced with the issue of not being able to take any disciplinary action when students failed to complete their homework. As a result, we could only plead with and encourage them to do their homework, and hope that when we came back the next week that something would be done. Without their homework completed, the script failed to be complied at the rate we had hoped it would be.
- Week 6: It simply comes down to the fact that if they choose to not do what is required of them, I can't do anything for them. I cannot hold their hand and we have no time left to make up for it, really. It is very disheartening to see the simplest of requests unfulfilled, but I knew to expect it this going in... We will have to take the work into our own hands. Since Gabby will have to skip April 22nd because of religious reasons, I fear that there will be no time at all now for practicing for a performance. If we had April 22nd, we would have had two weeks with a full script - at the moment, we have not even half a script for this week, and then we'll have a full script (hopefully) for April 2th. But then the performance is set for May 6th, and I fear that to ask the students to practice when we're not there would be impossible - they would probably not get it done, especially since they don't all live near each other.
Above all, this issue was the most aggravating one that we had to face while teaching in the prison. I felt that issues with cliques and ignorance were far easier to deal with than not seeing homework done. The fact that they had no excuses was also disheartening. While we don’t know what they do every day in the prison, we assumed that certainly it would not take them very long to do the work or extra reading. In our minds, we probably assumed that they sit around all day, especially since curfew is something like four in the afternoon. However, we adapted and took the extra work upon ourselves. What was also saddening was the fact that we knew the students in the other class would do their creative writing homework all the time – and I had to wonder if it was the content that was not motivating for our students. It could have been the simple disregard they have for Shakespeare, but at the same time, I expected them to remain committed to it, especially since they signed up for the class.