notes from Ed and Barbara

Ed’s notes:
Barbara and I used the book last night for the first time in class. We read Myles Bolton’s pieces, “Prison ain't much of a place.” We stopped after each paragraph and asked for comment. "Is that true or false?" we asked. When you come to prison, does everybody look like the All-Canadian college boy?. good discussions. One group felt the man was too negative, but lots of good talk.

This format produced lots of discussion and it varied with the group. A solid group of guys in the first period thought the writer was depressed. A later group just identified with the author.

The exercise lasted about twenty minutes.
Ed


Barbara and I read the book with women last week. We read Roxanne's piece on page 5. With one unit, we read the second line about rape and one woman threw down the book and started to cry.

We just kept going and later she said that she had never talked about it before. She didn't say what or anything more, but it seemed to us that at least she got it out.
Ed

You might add that we have given homework assignments based on the book -- e.g. after reading Myles Bolton "Prison is a place". we asked people to do the same -- write about your views of what kind of place prison is.

We got a good response. And without even giving assignments, we've been getting stories -- lost little girl, Dear Cocaine etc -- just from reading the book