Planning for the Group

Who They Are

For each CLTL program we run, while I determine what we will read, Probation and the Judge determine who will participate. As a facilitator, I do not find it useful to know particulars about the offenders because such information usually gets in the way of teaching with a clean slate, and I leave the casework to the POs. I do make certain assumptions from my work in prison and from experience with CLTL, assumptions about who they are before I choose the books. And although I do not know the exact mix of a class and am willing to change the readings if people are poorer or better readers than the preceding group, I know some things with certainty. Many of the women will be unmarried single mothers. Many will have a drug or alcohol problem and will have been prostitutes. I know that most will not have finished high school, although some will have a GED and a few will have started college. The majority of our Lynn-Lowell participants will be white, commonly of Irish or Italian descent; some will be Latina or Black; only a few will be Asian. Quite a few will have a history of abuse issues - domestic violence or sexual abuse. Some will have been perpetrators, as well as victims, and some will have problems with anger. Almost all will have a checkered job history. In each group, there is often someone who has done time and many of the women have been arrested over and over again.

That said, I also assume that my group of women will contain almost all who yearn for a better life, want to be good mothers, seek to understand why their relationships aren't working or haven't worked in the past, be looking for something to keep them out of crime, and struggle with their needs for a quick fix when things don't go their way.

In terms of reading abilities, they vary. Some women love to read while others claim they never read a book in school. Those who take on CLTL may never have had success in school with reading and need to be coaxed by me and by their POs into believing they can read. Success often depends on a willingness to take on the task.

How I Choose the Books

One of the most interesting aspects of facilitating a CLTL program is choosing the reading material. It is also an awesome responsibility, because the characters that go into our minds can affect us. I primarily use short stories and novels, with an occasional memoir and a few poems thrown in for good measure. From the beginning, I have bought into the notion that story is most accessible to our readers, and I seek to engage them with narrative that is compelling. Although poetry, drama, and essays have much to offer, story seems to creep inside us, and we live in its grasp. We imagine ourselves somewhere in the story or see its characters in relation to people we know.

I design a CLTL program around themes I want to touch upon during the course of the semester and around the difficulty of the reading material. Subjects that our texts explore may include self-discovery, self-image, relationships with family, relationships with lovers, friendship, love, abuse and violence, work in the world, motherhood, raising a child alone, racism, politics, and human freedom. Reading about survivors who struggle to keep a family together, make their way out of poverty, or become their own person can inspire us to succeed in our lives. By observing what characters do, how they solve problems, confront issues, and succeed or fail, we can learn to change our thinking and our behavior. By voicing our opinions and listening to those of others, we can begin to change our way of being in the world.

Of course, it's not always that simple. Raising issues in a group means that a variety of responses will come forth. The books I choose have come from my own hours of reading and from finding myself in the stories. If I am not moved by a character or provoked by an idea, I won't use the book. Sometimes, it's not the main character who grabs me but a supporting character. Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina is a good example. Bone's Aunt Raylene, the openly gay character, appeals to me because she helps Bone survive unspeakable brutality. For the women in my class, her actions may or may not sink in as much as Bone's struggle. Sometimes the women tell me they "hate" the book, but I continue to use it because it provides us with so much material for discussion and because Raylene deserves their consideration.

I most often use work by women because many of our students have not read female authors, and this seems empowering for them, but I will also throw in a book by a male author, because the theme might be relevant to us, or to show that men can write sympathetic female characters. For example, when I used Night, Elie Wiesel's gripping account of his experiences as a child during the Holocaust, what the women were most touched by was imagining their own child going through something "like that." Also, some of them had had no exposure to that period of history, and the book served as a way of opening up their eyes.

Likewise, when we read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams, the women usually know little about America's involvement in Nicaragua, but some find it fascinating that Codi's sister Hallie has a passion to help others with farming in a country that's "down there." This provides the opportunity for a geography lesson, if nothing else, but more importantly, for raising problematic questions like, "Why would someone leave America?" or "What is it like to risk your life for something you believe in?" As long as I don't try to force a political point of view on them, and I allow them to explore issues that the author raises, they are usually willing to consider things from a point of view other than their own.

Occasionally, the women's fear of difference or their unwillingness to move past stereotypes affect my book choices. When I chose Esmerelda Santiago's When I Was a Puerto Rican, several students proclaimed that if Santiago didn't like the continent (which she discusses in all its glory and not-so-glory), "she should go back to Puerto Rico." One probationer decided she was just like "all those Spanish types," and refused to accept any of Santiago's perceptions of feeling like an outsider in her own country. I was careful not to tell her she was wrong and asked her to think how she might feel moving to another country, and although the conversation left many important issues hanging in the air, it was difficult for me to hear some of the students' prejudices. When a book provides too many obstacles, I occasionally shy away from using that text again.

Still, that happens rarely. A book usually deserves a second chance. The women respond well to books about female identity. And even if the book is tough, like Allison's, I think it gives us much to think about, and I have used Allison's novel three or four times in our ten years. Quests for identity seem to be different when presented from a female point of view. Women do not sail with Odysseus or look for the great white whale as much as they seek to understand their troubled fathers or find the strength to get out of a no-good relationship. Just as in Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing, an epiphany can occur over an ironing board. And when we read that story, they always talk about their mothers and their daughters and what it is to be responsible for someone else's life.

When I include a work by a male author, I often structure my discussion to get at ideas about the text with the understanding that the group is made up of women. So I come at it from a different angle. I have found that men and women often respond differently to the same texts. For example, our discussion of Greasy Lake, a short story that includes male violence against a woman, takes a distinct turn when we consider the potential for violence in the male characters rather than discussing the text as a journey for male identity. Thus, a story by a male author in an all-female group opens us up to the different ways we come at a text, and thus, perhaps, helps us see some of the different ways we come at life. What is most important is that characters go through a struggle and that we see them dealing with painful and powerful human issues; that we are left with some hope, even if it is the beauty of making words out of tragedy. Because we all need to find ourselves somewhere in what we read, I feel the texts must open doors to our hearts.

Texts that we have used in our program through the years are noted below and I vary them, trying with each class to add a new text so that the POs and judge have something to look forward to as well. I always reserve the right to change a selection if it turns out that the group needs another text "emotionally," or if a group is filled with less- or more-able readers. I tend to use modern American fiction because it seems most accessible, but this is not an absolute. For example, I have used British authors and am considering a New Zealand author. Texts themselves are the teachers, and I choose books that give the reader the chance to get lost in a character and become affected by themes. Novels are most effective. However, this is not always true. A character in a short story can resonate for weeks with the women, and short stories, precisely because they are short, are very useful for the first class, if the group needs less of a challenge, or if we occasionally need to hold class two weeks in a row. Memoir often gives the women a chance to say, "I really like true stories," and they have to be taught that fiction is based on truth and memoir often involves imagination. Different groups like different material, and I've come to understand that choosing the reading is only one part of the process. Material that I have used over the years include the following books and short stories (short stories are marked with an asterisk):

James Agee, A Death in the Family
Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace
Dee Axelrod, River*
James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues*
Toni Cade Bambara, Gorilla, My Love*
Russell Banks, Rule of the Bone
T.C. Boyle, Greasy Lake*
Marta Brunet, Solitude of Blood*
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
Jane Hamilton, Map of the World
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Mary Karr, The Liars' Club
Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
Barbara Kingsolver, Pigs in Heaven
Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
Ursula Leguin, The Wife's Story*
Doris Lessing, Woman on a Roof*
Bobbie Ann Mason, In Country
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Alice Munro, Boys and Girls*
Gloria Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place
Rita Marie Nibasa, A Line of Cutting Women*
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are you Going? Where Have you Been?*
Tillie Olsen, Tell me a Riddle*
Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing*
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
Esmerelda Santiago, When I was a Puerto Rican
Anita Shreve, Strange Fits of Passion
Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Alice Walker, Everyday Use"*
Elie Wiesel, Night

Gender Issues

Judge Dever talks about how the women in our program are filled with self-loathing, and at the same time, with a sense that the world revolves around them. They often don't see the world through the eyes of others. I've thought a lot about the issues of women in our group, how remarkably able they are and what low self-esteem they have, and drawing on my experience from teaching women at Framingham, I feel that success in this program comes from keeping the stakes high and yet understanding where the women are coming from when they "can't understand" a text, have nothing to say, or even when they try to fake their way through a discussion.

Much has been written about women's issues and about success or lack of success because of the forces on women in our society: for example, the need to be nurturers; the fear of failure; the pressure to live the American dream and have 2.5 children, a husband, a happy home, and a white picket fence; the responsibilities of family and homemaking that fall on women; and the fact that women make less money in careers than their male counterparts. Women of color face even greater pressures than white women as they struggle with higher incarceration rates of family members and more with issues of poverty and societal racism. CLTL can address some of these issues through the texts chosen and through the way discussions are run, but the agenda must never be to force opinions on the probationers but to allow them to see where we all are coming from and to encourage them to make choices that allow them to lead productive, healthy, and satisfying lives.

One way low self-esteem expresses itself in our group is that women across the board - black, white, Latina - will underestimate their reading ability. In one class, a new young white student got up and ran out of the room in tears after she was given the reading list for the semester. Her mother had always told her she couldn't read, and she carried that fear of failure with her. We brought her back into the group, and we helped her figure out exactly how many pages she had to read a night in order to complete the novel by the next class. The PO also helped her plan to check in a few times each week. Pretty soon, she was coming to class with notes on the texts. She stuck it out, struggling with book after book, getting family members to help her by reading aloud, and when she got to the point where she could read a whole book on her own, she couldn't have been prouder.

Interestingly, that woman brought her new baby and her ex-pimp to graduation at the Lynn District Court; she said she had remained friends with her pimp even after she got out of tricking. This made me think about the long dark road of male-female relationships that these women have known. They talk often about their men through the characters, relating their attitudes towards being wives, girlfriends, ex-lovers, and friends. By and large, few claim healthy relationships, and many who are committed are afraid to leave bad relationships for all sorts of reasons ranging from believing their men will change, to needing the money he makes, to insecurity about being on their own.

Lack of confidence shows up in early meetings, perhaps in part because our judge is a male and we have one male PO. Some probationers are at first afraid to talk in the discussion, certain that their opinions and ideas are "wrong" or that they "don't matter." This fear disappears as they begun to feel listened to by the group, by the men as well as the women. They begin to feel some authenticity, their own power. My role is to draw these women out, to reinforce that they have something important to say even if we disagree, and to allow them and encourage them to express their disagreements with others in strong but respectful ways. Speaking out is something we value highly in the women's program, and although we don't force people to have opinions, we try to accentuate the fact that allowing different opinions in the room is positive.

In Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees, the main character, Taylor, has a crush on Estevan, a married man. One scene involves a night they "almost" slept together. At one of our sessions, Judge Dever said that he felt it was "noble" for Estevan not to succumb to his passions. One of the women, who had been shy early on and timid in our discussions, turned to him and told him politely but firmly that the only reason the man didn't give in is because Taylor was too tired and didn't let it happen. It didn't, she said, have anything to do with "nobility." They batted ideas back and forth for awhile, didn't agree, but accepted their differences. Most of the women looked at the judge kindly, but there was almost a sense in the room that they were the straight thinkers, not him, and it was an empowering moment for them, the realization that they had insight into women's and their own lives. This kind of discussion cannot be planned, but if we as facilitators are aware of the dynamics in our room and make use of male voices as well as female ones, there is value for all of us around the table.

This learning to express oneself appropriately in the face of authority is important for the women. They come from histories of violence where they have seen yelling, physical abuse, sexual abuse, rape, and, in some cases, murder. More are victims of violence, but some are also perpetrators and have abused their children or partners. Some associate vigorous discussions with forcing others to see things your way, and CLTL can improve upon that understanding. Part of expressing oneself is learning to listen, valuing others opinions, and not being afraid of difference.

Some women have to be coaxed out and learn that their opinions matter. Even the most vociferous probationer, the one we have to keep in check by reminding her to listen as well as speak out, is at first afraid to take on the judge. As we go through the semester, she will begin to see that she is her own person and has a right to her views. This happens through the process of the discussion (see "What Happens in the Group: The Discussion"). And it happens because everyone, POs and judges alike, model listening as well as talking. By the end of the seven classes, she will most likely have argued about what she thinks is morally right, criticized characters' actions, spoken out forcefully about which characters she respected and which she did not and why, and come up with her own conclusions about what makes people behave in certain ways. She will also have listened intently to what others have to say.

Of course, listening to the discussion is half of what helps the women. It allows them to have a greater sense of how others view the world. Inevitably, there is one person whose insecurities express herself with a "good girl" approach. That probationer will often sit next to me, try to get answers "right," and be less able than others to think deeply about ideas. She may appear to be a good listener, but sometimes she isn't really processing material. She's too afraid she will be wrong. Many of the probationers are much more willing to talk than listen. One time, when we were discussing The Bluest Eye, two women stood up at opposite ends of the table as the discussion got heated, gesturing into the air as they argued with each other. It was less violent than it sounds. But each was caught up in her own opinion, and they were really loud, almost shouting. We had to sit them down and get them to listen to each other. Most women stop interrupting when reminded a few times, but I've been known to ask someone to hold that thought, and continued throughout the class to work with her on listening.

The women are often touched by the books we read and want to relate them to their lives. In fact, one of the great things about the women's program is that most women intuitively make these connections and have insights into characters. They often say how a character is like them or like their mother or sister, and once a discussion gets going and they feel listened to and valued, most have no trouble participating. The fine line between sticking to the text and bringing up some connection to one's own life is discussed more thoroughly in the Discussion section below (see "What Happens in the Group"), but it is safe to say that the women enjoy making connections to themselves, and as the course progresses, listening to the connections that others make

Once, one of our POs was approached by one of the women's therapists and told that she did not recommend that the student read a particular book I had chosen. This occurred with The Bluest Eye, which deals with issues of sexual abuse. "It's bringing up too much," was the generalized comment, and the PO told me she had gone along with the therapist and the student was not reading that text.

I disagreed with the therapist and the PO but did not protest. However, although our readings provoke deep memories, it seems to me that there is also a healing that comes through discussion of the characters in a group setting. Precisely because we don't focus on a person's particular life in our group, the probationer can begin to see she is not alone. These things happen to other people. It is bearable. I am not suggesting that a teacher put herself in opposition to the PO, who can be in a tricky position herself, trying to support her probationer's program. However, it's not a black and white issue - and perhaps it's good to have things brought up. Our groups allow us to see that we are not operating in a vacuum. Others share our feelings. Others have our experiences. Also, there is a detachment that can come from looking at a painful subject through a character who is not oneself. This detachment, which allows us to see behavior through the eyes of a character, makes what is overwhelming, less so. If the women in my class had not read The Bluest Eye because it "brought up too much," there may not have been the profound realizations that occurred in our classroom about the nature of love, relationships, racism, childhood wisdom, and human behavior.

As the women start to feel successful in CLTL, they have to deal with people who don't want them to succeed. Sometimes this is the controlling or abusive boyfriend. I remember how one woman from Lynn asked that the van driver drop her off at the end of the class, a street or two away from the Lynn Court. She didn't want him to see her in a van driven by a man coming from the program because she knew he would be jealous. Unlike stories I've heard from some of the men's programs where girlfriends come and sit outside the door waiting for them and, in some cases, read the books with them, partners of our women are in many cases disparaging of the women's success. Early on, one woman wrote me a letter about how difficult it was for her to be in the program because of her abusive boyfriend. I remember seeing his car when he drove up to the college to pick her up after class - a rat trap with no back seat and the music blaring in the parking lot. When she got in the car, I could hear him raise his voice at her about making him wait, and I could see her sitting sullen, staring straight ahead, hardly the lively woman who had blossomed in our discussions.

Not only do female CLTL students not get support from their boyfriends, many are single mothers who have to fit reading in between taking care of kids and looking for work. Some have jobs they hold on to that pay minimum wage. Others can't find work. Some are on welfare. Most have not had the luxury of thinking about what they want to do with their lives. "What do you want to do with your one wild and precious life?" says Mary Oliver in her poem Summer, and to many of the women, this question is new. When we meet with the women after graduation, we talk about continuing with their education; we talk about lifelong learning. Learning that they have choices is a first for them because they tend to see themselves moving through life on a conveyor belt.

Where We Hold Class and Why

We took the first men's program's lead and decided to hold sessions at an institution of higher learning. At the college where I taught, the President gave us her office for our classroom, a room on the top floor, overlooking Lowell, with an oblong table able to sit twelve in cushioned chairs. The women are always a little bit in awe the first time they come together with us, up the elevator, and find that they are treated "specially." They are not used to this and don't expect it and, in fact, mostly feel they don't deserve it. To distinguish between their crimes and their humanity is a way to show them that this program is addressing a part of themselves that they often ignore.

The environment of a college campus has proven over and over again to have an effect on the probationers. Many have negative experiences with school but want to belong and fit in. The first time we held the program during a warm September, several of the women came up the stairs of the building and into the lobby of City Campus dressed in tight shorts, heels, and tops that showed way too much. No one else on campus was dressed that way, and it was interesting to watch our probationers check out other students who passed them by on their way up the elevator to classes. Without any of us saying a word, the women came dressed a little differently the next week, and soon, you couldn't have distinguished them from any other students. The environment affected their behavior.

Likewise, as they hang around a college, they start to think about getting back into college, getting their GEDs, or starting college for the first time. Out of every program we run, at least one or two enroll in college classes after they complete CLTL.

There's also a different feeling at a college campus than in a room at a courthouse. Whereas courts stand for justice, colleges stand for academic freedom.