| I love to learn new things. I am intensely curious about the world, and it just so happens that education is a key to lowering recidivism (re-offense) rates in prisoners. This benefit is not the driving factor for my love of learning, but it certainly drives my passion for prisoner education. If educating prisoners will reduce the victimization of other people in the communities to which these prisoners return, why would anyone NOT want to invest in prisoner education? Education itself, though, is not a magic remedy for the ills of criminality. For education to really change a person's thinking (and therefore behavior), education must be more than instructive--it must also be formative. Men who come to prison are often uneducated or undereducated, so their worldview is formed predominantly by the culture and community in which they live. This is true not only of prisoners but of undereducated free citizens as well. Culture and community, as well as one's family, serve to form how one views oneself and the world in which one lives. When one's worldview approves of antisocial behavior, it very well may lead one to prison. Whether this worldview is filled with antisocial views or those views are simply present in some areas, the culture of prison and its pervasive criminal mentality often serves to reinforce these antisocial views and behaviors. Prison is already a formative place, and without intentionally positive education, the negative, criminal culture of prison only reinforces the antisocial worldviews held by so many prisoners. So, how can education be formative in addition to instructional? How can education interrupt and change the worldviews of prisoners that led them to harm others? For education to be instructive and formative, it must start with and be firmly tied to moral formation. All crime boils down to a corruption or violation of the morality espoused by a culture, so to change the corrupt, immoral behaviors that lead one to prison, one's moral foundation must be reformed. If communities want their citizens who return from prison to be safe, contributing members of the community, they must demand morally formative education from the institution that is responsible for rehabilitating its incarcerated citizens. |
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Formative Education Changs People
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
How Education Began a Journey to Change My Life
(Guest post by Rick Reamsma (#199948) - Rick is a fellow Calvin Prison Initiative student.)
For most of my life, I have embraced being a criminal. The anger, fear, hatred, bitterness, feelings of power and control - these were my friends. I shared my friends with any and all that I felt I could, and I had no compunction to change. That is until an opportunity was offered to me by Calvin College.
Education, this is what they offered - on the surface. But they offered so much more. Through the love that they showed me, the kindness, compassion and heartfelt handshakes, they offered to bear my burden of releasing myself from the "friends" of my past.
Because of Calvin College and the education and love they displayed to one so undeserving, I now crave to do this for others. I can only accomplish this though through being educated. I have to learn how to not blame others, to take responsibility for my actions, and accept challenges that are more difficult than any I have previously endeavored to attempt. This is only accomplished by education.
Further, this process has awakened within me the desire to get to know God on a very intimate level. I have come to realize, thanks to education, that just having the knowledge is not enough. I have to have the mind of Christ, and His mind involves heart. I have to love my neighbor as myself, so that means that I desire education for myself and also desire it for my neighbor. Plus, God gives me the strength to overcome the strongholds in my mind that potentially hinder my growth.
Yes, I am just now beginning this journey down education's path; however, having only taken a couple of steps, I have made great strides to overcome the broken thought processes that I have carried, and that is very important for me as well as for those around me.
For most of my life, I have embraced being a criminal. The anger, fear, hatred, bitterness, feelings of power and control - these were my friends. I shared my friends with any and all that I felt I could, and I had no compunction to change. That is until an opportunity was offered to me by Calvin College.
Education, this is what they offered - on the surface. But they offered so much more. Through the love that they showed me, the kindness, compassion and heartfelt handshakes, they offered to bear my burden of releasing myself from the "friends" of my past.
Because of Calvin College and the education and love they displayed to one so undeserving, I now crave to do this for others. I can only accomplish this though through being educated. I have to learn how to not blame others, to take responsibility for my actions, and accept challenges that are more difficult than any I have previously endeavored to attempt. This is only accomplished by education.
Further, this process has awakened within me the desire to get to know God on a very intimate level. I have come to realize, thanks to education, that just having the knowledge is not enough. I have to have the mind of Christ, and His mind involves heart. I have to love my neighbor as myself, so that means that I desire education for myself and also desire it for my neighbor. Plus, God gives me the strength to overcome the strongholds in my mind that potentially hinder my growth.
Yes, I am just now beginning this journey down education's path; however, having only taken a couple of steps, I have made great strides to overcome the broken thought processes that I have carried, and that is very important for me as well as for those around me.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Igniting Hope for Restoration
On Friday morning, February 10, 2017, Calvin College held a convocation at their Handlon Correctional Facility satellite campus. At this convocation seventeen incarcerated college students received their one year certificates on their way to a bachelors degree in ministry leadership with a minor in sociology.
Students from the Calvin Knollcrest campus joined around a dozen of the Calvin Prison Initiative (CPI) students in a combined choir that led the audience of around one hundred attendees. Attendees of this convocation included faculty members, many of whom have taught classes at the Handlon campus, CPI board members, program sponsors, and others interested in this unique, transformational program.
Speakers included Mr. Julius Medenblik, president of Calvin Theological Seminary; Mr. Bill K.A. Warners, president of Calvin College's Student Senate; Dr. Ronald Feenstra, professor of Systematic and Philosophical Theology; Mr. Valmarcus Jones, freshman CPI student; and Mr. Kenneth McKee, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Corrections.
The news media, who covered this event, aired a positive news segment that night on Fox 17 news. http://fox17online.com/2017/02/10/students-learning-from-behind-bars-are-on-their-way-to-a-college-education/
While much more needs to be done to reform the prison system in Michigan, the positive changes being seen at Handlon Correctional Facility because of the Calvin Prison Initiative and the MDOC's new Vocational Village are a refreshing and hopeful sign.
The outpouring of support from donors who fund and others who champion the CPI program is a restorative balm to prisoners who are too often given up on as hopeless.
Thank you Calvin College! Thank you donors and supporters! Thank you MDOC for allowing this program! Thank you for igniting and fanning our hope for restoration!
Students from the Calvin Knollcrest campus joined around a dozen of the Calvin Prison Initiative (CPI) students in a combined choir that led the audience of around one hundred attendees. Attendees of this convocation included faculty members, many of whom have taught classes at the Handlon campus, CPI board members, program sponsors, and others interested in this unique, transformational program.
Speakers included Mr. Julius Medenblik, president of Calvin Theological Seminary; Mr. Bill K.A. Warners, president of Calvin College's Student Senate; Dr. Ronald Feenstra, professor of Systematic and Philosophical Theology; Mr. Valmarcus Jones, freshman CPI student; and Mr. Kenneth McKee, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Corrections.
The news media, who covered this event, aired a positive news segment that night on Fox 17 news. http://fox17online.com/2017/02/10/students-learning-from-behind-bars-are-on-their-way-to-a-college-education/
While much more needs to be done to reform the prison system in Michigan, the positive changes being seen at Handlon Correctional Facility because of the Calvin Prison Initiative and the MDOC's new Vocational Village are a refreshing and hopeful sign.
The outpouring of support from donors who fund and others who champion the CPI program is a restorative balm to prisoners who are too often given up on as hopeless.
Thank you Calvin College! Thank you donors and supporters! Thank you MDOC for allowing this program! Thank you for igniting and fanning our hope for restoration!
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Courageous Action Overcomes Fear
Fear is a powerful motivator. And sometimes a powerful de-motivator. Fear sometimes causes us to act, in both rational and irrational ways. Other times, fear paralyzes us from acting at all. This dominant emotion is so prevalent in our lives, we barely see its influence on our individual decisions, on our communal values, on our public policy.
Fear has so infected our common psyche that we don't even see how it shapes and molds how we view ourselves, and especially how we view others.
The influence of fear can be seen in wars motivated by religious and ideological differences. It can be seen in the bloody gang wars on the streets of L.A. and Chicago. It can be seen in the fractional partisanship that paralyzes our country's leadership, and in Executive orders "banning" refugees from countries where radical Islamic ideology produces zealots that hate America. Fear's influence can even be seen in that radical ideology.
Often, fear motivates the crimes that keep America's prisons bursting at the seams. It certainly motivates the legislative and judicial responses that have led to America's culture of incarceration.
Fear is what keeps politicians from making radical changes to laws that are designed to be "tough on crime" but that yield no real differences in making communities safer. After all, one cannot appear to be "soft on crime" and keep a political position for long.
Fear is what keeps communities from embracing their citizens who return from prison after serving their sentence. It's what keeps some employers from taking a chance on those returning citizens, and some landlords from renting to them.
Fear is what keeps some of these returning citizens from applying for a job, or from accepting the challenge of changing their thinking and behavior through educational and spiritual reformation.
In short, fear so dominates our lives that we have become accustomed to it. Perhaps even comforted by it. When fear motivates us, we have a convenient scapegoat for the choices we make. We have a ready excuse for our class warfare, for our racial conflict, for our religious intolerance, for our culture of incarceration, for our failure to act.
"Courage" is an antonym of the word "fear," so courageous action is an antidote. We should not deny our fears, but we should define them and seek to understand them. Only by understanding what we fear, who we fear, can we begin to act with courage. Fear need not define our behavior, restrict our creativity, paralyze our potential, or confine our spirit to that which is "safe."
When we face our fears, defeat them even, we discover that what held us in bondage to inaction, what energized our hatred and intolerance, what crushed our creative problem solving, is often nothing more than a product of our own imagination. It is too often our over-generalization of one person's actions onto the motives and plans of others that drives us to fear them.
Let us not swallow our fears, for then we internalize them. Let us, instead, expose them to the sunshine of truth and burn away the rotten thinking that feeds them. Let us take courageous action to defeat our fears. Let us approach those we fear and get to know them. Let us take a chance at failure, not so we can retreat back into the safe haven of our fearful walls, but so we can learn from our failures and try something new. Let us learn to master our fear instead of submitting ourselves as slaves to this powerful tyrant.
Courage starts with you. How will you conquer your fears?
Fear has so infected our common psyche that we don't even see how it shapes and molds how we view ourselves, and especially how we view others.
The influence of fear can be seen in wars motivated by religious and ideological differences. It can be seen in the bloody gang wars on the streets of L.A. and Chicago. It can be seen in the fractional partisanship that paralyzes our country's leadership, and in Executive orders "banning" refugees from countries where radical Islamic ideology produces zealots that hate America. Fear's influence can even be seen in that radical ideology.
Often, fear motivates the crimes that keep America's prisons bursting at the seams. It certainly motivates the legislative and judicial responses that have led to America's culture of incarceration.
Fear is what keeps politicians from making radical changes to laws that are designed to be "tough on crime" but that yield no real differences in making communities safer. After all, one cannot appear to be "soft on crime" and keep a political position for long.
Fear is what keeps communities from embracing their citizens who return from prison after serving their sentence. It's what keeps some employers from taking a chance on those returning citizens, and some landlords from renting to them.
Fear is what keeps some of these returning citizens from applying for a job, or from accepting the challenge of changing their thinking and behavior through educational and spiritual reformation.
In short, fear so dominates our lives that we have become accustomed to it. Perhaps even comforted by it. When fear motivates us, we have a convenient scapegoat for the choices we make. We have a ready excuse for our class warfare, for our racial conflict, for our religious intolerance, for our culture of incarceration, for our failure to act.
"Courage" is an antonym of the word "fear," so courageous action is an antidote. We should not deny our fears, but we should define them and seek to understand them. Only by understanding what we fear, who we fear, can we begin to act with courage. Fear need not define our behavior, restrict our creativity, paralyze our potential, or confine our spirit to that which is "safe."
When we face our fears, defeat them even, we discover that what held us in bondage to inaction, what energized our hatred and intolerance, what crushed our creative problem solving, is often nothing more than a product of our own imagination. It is too often our over-generalization of one person's actions onto the motives and plans of others that drives us to fear them.
Let us not swallow our fears, for then we internalize them. Let us, instead, expose them to the sunshine of truth and burn away the rotten thinking that feeds them. Let us take courageous action to defeat our fears. Let us approach those we fear and get to know them. Let us take a chance at failure, not so we can retreat back into the safe haven of our fearful walls, but so we can learn from our failures and try something new. Let us learn to master our fear instead of submitting ourselves as slaves to this powerful tyrant.
Courage starts with you. How will you conquer your fears?
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Strengthen The Thin Thread of Hope
"I'm hanging in there by a thread!"
This familiar saying is often repeated by people who are nearly at the end of their ability to cope with the emotional strain of stress. It usually means that the weight of stress will soon break that person's emotional control, or maybe it'll break the person himself.
Let's be honest: we've all been there at some point, and we'd all agree that a thread is a very thin connection to put much weight on.
But sometimes a thread is all you need.
Take, for instance, a thread of hope. This thread is sometimes so thin it can't be seen. Sometimes it's so impossibly thin the naysayers would tell you it's not there at all and that you're foolish to believe it is. Some would even swipe at that thin lifeline of hope just to break your resolve in its potential. After all, who are you to hold onto hope when your hope is contrary to the will of those same naysayers?
Yet, a thread, no matter how thin it is and no matter how foolish it may seem to believe in, is sometimes all it takes to give one strength to hang on for one more day. It might be all one needs to take a step in faith. It might be that very thin thread from which a beautiful and complex tapestry is contructed. But one must start with a thread.
So maybe your situation looks impossible, and you are tired of hanging on to that thin thread of hope, but until "looks impossible" becomes "is impossible," keep holding on. Keep strengthening that thin thread of hope. Keep choosing to ignore those who would sever your hopeful thread and keep hanging on.
This familiar saying is often repeated by people who are nearly at the end of their ability to cope with the emotional strain of stress. It usually means that the weight of stress will soon break that person's emotional control, or maybe it'll break the person himself.
Let's be honest: we've all been there at some point, and we'd all agree that a thread is a very thin connection to put much weight on.
But sometimes a thread is all you need.
Take, for instance, a thread of hope. This thread is sometimes so thin it can't be seen. Sometimes it's so impossibly thin the naysayers would tell you it's not there at all and that you're foolish to believe it is. Some would even swipe at that thin lifeline of hope just to break your resolve in its potential. After all, who are you to hold onto hope when your hope is contrary to the will of those same naysayers?
Yet, a thread, no matter how thin it is and no matter how foolish it may seem to believe in, is sometimes all it takes to give one strength to hang on for one more day. It might be all one needs to take a step in faith. It might be that very thin thread from which a beautiful and complex tapestry is contructed. But one must start with a thread.
So maybe your situation looks impossible, and you are tired of hanging on to that thin thread of hope, but until "looks impossible" becomes "is impossible," keep holding on. Keep strengthening that thin thread of hope. Keep choosing to ignore those who would sever your hopeful thread and keep hanging on.