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Obvious Truths We Shouldn’t Be Ingnoring Series (Part 2)

By Christopher Zoukis

This is the second blog post in the ‘Obvious Truths We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring Series.’ This series is based upon eight “Obvious Truths” presented by Alfie Kohn in his “Ten Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring,” published in the September 2011 issue of The Education Digest.

“Just knowing a lot of facts doesn’t mean you’re smart.”

As with the first post in this series, the fact that useless memorization is ineffective means that we – as educators – need to focus upon our students’ overall understanding, not specific memorized facts. This is because a student can be filled with facts, yet be lost when it comes to connecting the facts and finding “inventive and persuasive ways” of solving problems.

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Providing College To Prison Inmates Series (Part 7)

This is the seventh and final blog post in the ‘Providing College To Prison Inmates Series.’ This series is based upon seven “Recommendations for Policy and Practice” presented by Contardo on pages 154 through 156 of her text Providing College To Prison Inmates.

“Articulate the benefits of college for prison inmates so that outsiders can understand.” –Contardo (pg. 156)

While the above quote refers to securing support for correctional education, I feel that this is not the correct way to solicit outside support of these programs. This is because the American people don’t want to know how much more they can spend to help a prisoner – someone who broke the law – or how spending this money will help the prisoner. If anything, the American people want to know how correctional education benefits them. They want to know why they should mentally buy-in to the idea of educating prisoners. As such, this blog post is based upon the benefits of prison education to the American people. Though, the benefit of the American people coincides with the benefit of the incarcerated student, too. It’s a win-win situation.

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Obvious Truths We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring Series (Part 1)

As one of my professional development tasks, I read all I can on education, student development, and better practices for teachers. I do so because I’m not a formally educated instructor. I’m a guy who made some bad decisions when I was a senior in high school. Hence, I came to prison. And, it was here that I hit my educational stride, both in terms of teaching and learning.

The other day I was reading the September 2011 issue of The Education Digest and I came across a terrific piece by Alfie Kohn entitled ‘Ten Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring.’ In this essay he notes obvious truths such as memorization not being all that it is cracked up to be, that knowing a lot of facts doesn’t make a person smart, and that students are more likely to learn what they find interesting than what they don’t.

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Providing College To Prison Inmates Series (Part 6)

This is the sixth blog post in the ‘Providing College To Prison Inmates Series.’ This series is based upon seven “Recommendations for Policy and Practice” presented by Contardo on pages 154 through 156 of her text Providing College To Prison Inmates.

“Document successes and failures.” –Contardo (pg. 156)

So far we have discussed how to implement programs, the challenges with doing so, and several models to follow. Now let’s take a look at measuring successes and failures, and developing a body of research that may facilitate other correctional educational programs.

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COLLEGE BEHIND BARS?

Educational Series #7

I am a huge advocate of prison education. Over the last 5 years I have earned a number of certificates, diplomas, and more – all from behind bars. Even now, I am pursuing my degree (English & Sociology) through Ohio University. I won’t give you a full account here – this post is about the technical elements of college behind bars – but I will point you in the right direction. The full list of my educational accomplishments from behind bars can be found at https://christopherzoukis.com/about/resume-and-published-works and ChristopherZoukis.com/about-me/.

First, what the Bureau of Prisons says about college behind bars. According to the FCI-Petersburg Inmate Admission and Orientation Handbook, “General educational courses are primarily completed through correspondence courses. However, inmates must pay for their own tuition, books, and materials for all post secondary courses. Prior approval for all courses must be received by Education Department staff.”

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Release Preparation Program and Parenting Classes

Educational Series #4

Two programs offered here at FCI-Petersburg providing much needed skills are the Release Preparation Program (RPP) and the Parenting classes. Both of these programs focus on much needed skill-building, skills that can make all of the difference once the prisoner is released. Let’s take each in turn.

Release Preparation Program

According to the FCI-Petersburg Inmate Admission and Orientation Handbook,

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