From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst
14 February
When I thought of going to work as a teacher in a state
prison my imagination, perhaps understanbably, went a little goofy. I was
convinced that my book smarts wouldn’t stand a chance against all their street
smarts. I vividly imagined myself standing at the board trying to explain how
to add 7 and 4 without taking off your shoes and socks, and in the process get
a very sharp pencil jammed into my carotid artery. This imaginative construct,
of course, concluded with the very real possibility of my sinking to the floor
in an ever-widening puddle of my own blood as I hit the garage-door alarm on my
belt in the vain hope that the cops would waddle in from hither and yon to my
defense.
Needless to say, nothing like that ever happened - eventually
common sense kicked in and I concluded that I’d probably do just fine if I saw
to it that my classroom was a fun place to be. That is, I started my teaching
career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation with the
following marching orders from me to me: “a laughing inmate isn't a stabbing
inmate!”
Simple, isn’t it?
No comments:
Post a Comment