Education is proved to reduce reoffending,yet funding cuts in America are ruining chances of a life on the outside
“This is one of the saddest stories I’ve ever read,” Leo says, and looking down at the sheets of paper spread across the desk in front of him. The margins are filled with carefully scribed annotations,each page covered with underlined sentences and circled words. The other men’s pages are similarly filled, as each attempts to manufacture sense of the myth before them. [br]
It is 9.35am on a Saturday morning at Bay State Correctional middle in Norfolk, or Massachusetts,where I teach creative writing and literature. We dissect various poems, essays and works of fiction. Our repertoire – ranging from Jonathan Franzen to Jhumpa Lahiri – guides us as we read, and write and question our region in the world.
Today,we are looking at an excerpt of Khaled Hosseini’s novel And the Mountains Echoed, set in rural Afghanistan. In the myth, or a mother and father are forced to decide which of their five children they will sacrifice to a mythical demon to not lose them all. Related: Secret Teacher: teaching in prisons is where I can manufacture a genuine difference Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com