Honoring Different Perspectives
By Ean Alleyne (profile)

Each week at about 7:15 p.m., I would arrive at the building; maybe a few guys would be waiting. I oftentimes would pace the corridor, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the professors and the probationers. I would try to assume a clairvoyant mentality, wondering how class discussions would go based on the assigned readings. After the second class, I realized that many of the probationers did not come to class prepared, but nevertheless, they were quite prepared for class. Even if they had not done the assigned reading, many of them came prepared to discuss and to answer questions put before them.

I grappled with whether to hold these gentlemen responsible for the reading or just to steer the discussion in the direction of the core of the assigned reading. My choice was quickly taken away after I recognized that the goal of the course was to not leave any student behind, and I felt strongly that it was our job to engage the students and bring them into the conversation. This can be, and at times proved to be, a very difficult task, but by the end of the night, many good thoughts and views were exchanged and information shared. Many nights I asked myself, like any good educator should, "Have I succeeded at creating an environment conducive to stimulating thought? Have I touched upon the meanings that the readings were meant to elucidate?" and the final question, "How will next week's class go?" Many nights, I felt very satisfied that I was able to engage at least one person and challenge his thinking.

On many levels, Changing Lives Through Literature creates a love of learning, piques curiosity, and fosters literary awareness. From my perspective as a functioning member of the course, point of view has been the most interesting and extractable component. We come from various backgrounds and use very different schemes of logic, whether weak or strong. This does not mean that we can't confront or converse on the same issue. Many of the weekly questions dealt with very heavy, fundamentally challenging societal esteem issues. These questions required a great deal of acute thinking and could evolve in several directions, but at the core of the discussion was always a very interesting and thought-provoking question, often one that I myself found deeply puzzling. Very frequently, almost always, the group discussions centered on survival, and how we face life's obstacles on a daily basis.

Whether it be nonfiction or fiction, people often have a difficult time relating deeply to what they are reading. It is often a daunting task to get non-readers to understand literary nuances and to get them to buy into literature. My selling point, whether the story is fiction or nonfiction, is that a human wrote the story; for that human to have written it, she or he had to have had some type of thought; and from that thought, perhaps one of us can draw from or relate to that experience and learn from it. Words are powerful tools!

All in all, the course has developed a micro-society of nontraditional thinkers who are nevertheless thinkers. When Judge Sidney Hanlon stood up and delivered her opening remarks at the graduation, she said it was a great day when she got to see individuals who she often sees at their worst, at their best. That was a spine-chilling moment for me personally. It makes the continuation of programs such as CLTL worthwhile. The program is a valuable asset to the community in general, and more importantly, to the population that it serves. We change lives in more ways than one can imagine!