How an Old Teacher Got Schooled - Part One

"How do we redefine education so that 30-50 percent of inner-city children do not drop out of school, thus ensuring that millions will end up in prison?"

~ Grace Lee Boggs

From the author:

Let's face it: some men incarcerated in prison are precisely where they need to be. Some men are born with, and others are changed by their environment into someone lacking something critical.

Something necessary to become a functional member of our society. This 'something' is personal morals, ethics, or a sense of right and wrong. As you can imagine, ethics is a hotly debated issue within prisons.

I like to call that discussion Prison Philosophy 101. Ethics is often a matter of perspective. My family and friends constantly ask me how I can work with criminals-how can I help people who have committed many crimes?

It is a challenging question, so I use a default answer. My answer is always the same: "It is a matter of perspective."

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This story is loosely based upon a previously published short story, Prison Ethics 101, originally published in the Fall 2019 issue of Twisted Vine Literary and Arts Journal.

"To understand the man, you must first walk a mile in his moccasins."

~ Attributed to Native Americans

This is a prison-themed short story, but it is also a human story. By committing their crime, a felon surrenders their rights (temporarily) to be a member of our society. This is something I understand.

However, just because a man makes a mistake (or several mistakes) doesn't mean he ceases to be a member of humanity. Trust me when I say that much good persists in these places and men despite their surroundings and burdens.

When I lecture in my prison classes, I enjoy discussing the importance of perspective with my students. They should strive to see things from the other man's point of view.

Since my wife is half-Cherokee and constantly wears moccasins, I have always been strongly drawn to the quote that refers to several different people, interchangeably using the words shoes, sandals, and moccasins.

"To understand the man, you must first walk a mile in his moccasins."

Right and wrong, good and evil, morality, philosophy (and, of course), ethics. I was recently teaching a class on a popular subject on the inside. My incarcerated students refer to it as the Big E class.

This is a true story about an incident while I was teaching an ethics class inside a prison we will call Merrytown Correctional Institute, or MCI.

I could not ethically write about this incident without obtaining permission from the student involved. I told him that I would use an anonymous name when referring to him for this story. With his typical sense of humor, he wanted to be called prisoner Malcolm X.

He insisted on selecting the name.

I always refer to my students with the prefix "Mr." followed by their surname. This means that he would be Mister X in the story. My students refer to me as Doctor D. This story is about Mister X and Doctor D in the Big E class.

You can't make this stuff up, can you?

On this day, I was teaching a class on Business Ethics. Mister X was part of the class, where approximately fifty percent of students had worked hard for months or years to achieve their GED.

They were finally taking college-level coursework!

I usually thoroughly enjoy these sessions with newer students. Exploring their personal belief systems exposes them to the thoughts of great men such as Kant, Descartes, and Niet!

I would follow my usual utili steps! In creative, ethical dilemma questions such as: If you could go back in time, would you kill Hitler as a baby knowing how he would turn out?"

I would play the numbers games of philosophy. Would you kill one old business instructor (me) to save a million lives? Would you trade one life for the life of someone who would later cure cancer and save millions of others?"

My readers, you have probably heard them all. However, they did the job of provoking good discussions until it was Mister X's turn to be grilled.

No matter how ridiculous the scenarios I created were, he completely and utterly refused to 'take' the imaginary life. He was unshakeable in his responses, never taking a life, no matter how impactful it became in my fictional ethical scenarios.

Becoming frustrated, I told Mister X, "Hey, Mister X, remember that our class rules are always to be truthful. Are you following the rules?"

He quietly replied to me (and the entire class), "Yes, sir, Doctor D. I am being truthful. No matter what awful scenario you create, you can never convince me that it is okay to take a human life. Nothing you can say will get me to change my mind."

Now, I was becoming intrigued.

To be continued...

END