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Printer-Friendly ModeEnglish prof, students take Shakespeare behind bars
October 5, 2009 —
Most college peer reviews don’t leave the classroom. But for some, the process goes past the walls of a penitentiary.
That’s because English professor Phyllis Hastings is incorporating elements of her three classes this semester into a course she teaches at the Saginaw Correctional Facility.
Having students from her university courses and class at the correctional facility peer review each other’s work adds a unique layer to the process.
“You get more honest feedback,” Hastings said. “Usually with peer review, students say nice things, but [the inmates] aren’t looking to make longtime friends.”
This unorthodox peer review method is just one benefit to emerge from the intertwined academic arrangement.
Hastings started teaching courses at the correctional facility earlier in the decade. Since then, she has used her dual teaching roles to have students not just absorb textbook knowledge, but also examine literature and life through a different lens.
The link between her on- and off-campus courses has helped many students see the individuals behind broad assumptions about prisoners, according to Hastings.
“This usually blows up the stereotype of prisoners for a lot of these students,” she said. “Some of these prisoners really do care who Othello was and why he did what he did.”
The paths many of these prisoners have taken, though undesirable, have also helped many develop deeper literary insights.
Many of the students in her classes at the facility usually are able to look at characters with a broader scope than the average college student, Hastings said.
Since prisoners are not required to obtain anything past a GED, the ones in classes such as Hastings’ are there by choice. The lack of a degree incentive further helps chisel away at the prisoner stereotype.
The inmate-student peer review arrangement isn’t the only thing bridging the gap between the two groups.
Students in Hastings’ three university courses have the option of attending the twice-a-week class at the correctional facility to participate in discussions on the shared material.
To ensure students from all of her classes eventually cover the same works, Hastings draws material from her three University courses to use in the correctional facility class. Later this semester, students from her American Literature class and course at the prison will both read and discuss The Adventures of Huck Finn.
Hastings says she expects the diversity between the two classes will generate a much-needed variety of interpretations.
“Discussing a book like this in a mixed-race setting is almost essential,” she said.
Dwindling state funding and more frequent inmate moving because of prison closings have put strains on the types of classes Hastings offers at the facility. These obstacles are compromising what Hastings says is a valuable resource for the prisoners.
“There aren’t a lot of ways in there they can improve themselves.”