"B" Blog from Rethinking our Schools

 "B" Blog from Rethinking our Schools

Teaching the Prison Industrial Complex by Aparna Lakshmi

This article brought tears to my eyes. Reading about the youths' journeys through education in this classroom and how ultimately, the relevancy of the topic was the only reason youth engaged at all was moving. At first I thought this would be a great resource for my afterschool and summer staff because the process Lakshmi uses to gage youth on which topic they would like to study is a method we use for our environmental justice and project-based learning as well. While I believe it is still a great resource for this, what I came to appreciate most about the article and Lakshmi's classroom was her focus on one specific topic. Often times I find we try to cover to many things at once and never spend quality time on one particular topic. I selected this article to write about because of this, and the fact that within one societal problem, there's can be so many subtopics of focus, I want to support my staff in this youth voice and choice process of relevant learning.

"The best thing about this class was we got to  choose what we wanted to learn about. I did the reading and wrote the papers because I was interested in this topic." I believe this quote adds to what I began to say here, that relevancy for youth and youth voice and choice are so important. This student and many like her would have likely not participated, would have dropped from this class or barely tried to do the work. Lakshmi's class was required to complete eight two-paged papers and a 10 to 12 paged research thesis. Considering her class has students who could barely read, this sounds like a lot and I could image, very intimidating to someone who doesn't have the skills to do so. But, because the youth got to select their topic, the prison industrial complex, and a subtopic for their research thesis, they were engaged, some youth even got personal with their papers and supported each other through group table discussions.

"...The 13th Amendment: ' Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishments for crime whereof the party hall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United State, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.' " I was shocked to read this, I have spoke about prison before and understand how it is essentially slavery but never have I read the actual amendment or understood that this is an actual law, that our prisoners can be treated as slaves and its totally legal. It seems the youth in this class felt the same and did a lot of research on abolition and the history of this to fully understand it. Each week students were also presented with a couple of questions to think about and answer and I enjoy how deep and thought provoking they were. Based on the opening discission of this article not all youth agreed with each other either. Lakshmi also mentions a game they play to experience what factors make you more likely to get a higher prison sentence (race and class), I wish I had the cards and prompt because I would love to play with my teens. Being able to relate in a more hands-on way what they are learning, reading and writing about is very powerful. 

"Once students had mastered finding evidence and making an argument based on that evidence, I gradually pushed them to start proving their arguments." I selected this as the third quote because I believe it perfectly summarizes the true intent of this article - Meeting youth where they are at. Lakshmi speaks a lot about her specific experiences teaching about the prison industrial complex and how it works for her youth, but ultimately, her practices and processes can be duplicated anywhere, look completely different with a new group of youth and have the same quality effect of learning. By meeting youth where they are at; allowing them to select their own topic of interest and relevancy, presenting thought provoking questions and discussion and even grading/giving feedback in a way that does not pressure youth and is relevant to each of their personal learning and growth, Lakshmi created a space youth felt safe and proud of their learning in.