2008 Woodie Awards
MT faculty teach college-level classes to prisoners
Alex Moorman
Issue date: 7/23/08 Section: News
|
The program began in late March and took place at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility and the Tennessee Prison for Women. The program incorporated volunteers from MTSU's English faculty, including Philip E. Phillips, associate professor of English.
"Educational opportunities that include critical examination of texts and thoughtful discussion of great ideas abound at Middle Tennessee State University, and such opportunities enrich our students' minds and lives," Phillips said.
Phillips applied for and received an MTSU Public Service Grant for $2,701 and $250 from the College of Liberal Arts for the pilot initiative of the program.
Working along side Phillips as volunteers were Warren Tormey, Becky King, Laura Dubek, Rhonda McDaniel and Tricia Gaitely.
The process of trying to set up the programs in the prisons began in January after Daniel Born, of the Chicago-based Great Books Foundation, visited the Riverbend and DeBerry facilities.
Sharmila Patel, head of the education department for the Tennessee Department of Correction, took Born on a tour of the prisons and described the need for programs like Great Books in Tennessee prisons.
"I feel like it really enriched our lives and it really enriched theirs too," said Rebecca King, an English professor and program volunteer. "The discussions we had every week were very rich and brought together people from really different backgrounds, so we got to hear different kinds of insights."
King said the students had read a lot of relevant books and had a real high level of education.
"The classes started preparing prisoners to reflect critically upon the choices that they make and the values that they embrace, Phillips said. "There are many in our society, however, who have had few, if any, meaningful educational opportunities to cultivate their minds in this way or even to see the value of the "examined" life."
Phillips said they were trying to expose the students to literature because a lot of these students had never had to option of taking college- level classes.
"The classes are not for college credit but they are college level, and I think that will really help these students in the future," Phillips said.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
William Miller
posted 7/23/08 @ 12:07 PM CST
Don't get me wrong, I love the idea. But I seem to remember reading in The Record or the Alumni Notes newsletter that this was funded with something along the lines of a $2000 grant. (Continued…)
Post a Comment