Lesson One—Always Accept the Challenge

Accepting the Challenge

“Raymond” was one of my first students.  He was tall and lanky with shaggy brown hair, deep brown eyes and big ears.  He was a simple person whose soft eyes told me that he had accepted his circumstances and was willing to accept whatever fate dealt him with his appeal.  I always loved it when Raymond entered my room with his broad smile.  I always smiled back with my best teacher/parent smile.  Raymond  was a young naïve kid in a 35 year old body.  

Raymond came back to the county jail to appeal his case; he was actually a hold from another county.  When he was 19 years old, he and his friend were in a bar brawl that resulted in the death of another person.  According to all accounts and based on information from his  appeal, Raymond, succumbing to peer pressure, believed that the victim was already dead when he hit him with a tire iron. It was his friend  who delivered the deadly punch.  Regardless, Raymond, now clean and sober, realized the permanence of his actions.  Coming back to the jail and no longer on death row, he was determined to be more than those few hours that defined him for the past 15 years.  

He showed up in class excited to have an opportunity to attend school, or to attend anything for that matter.  When you are on death row you have few privileges.  15 years on death row…he was pretty stagnant.  It didn’t take long to realize that he had a learning disability.  I worked with him as best my knowledge afforded me and finally decided to see if I could acquire his school records and IEP.  His attorney, who was incredibly supportive of Raymond, helped me secure as much information as I could from the schools.   Reading through his IEP was heartbreaking as well as frustrating.  In a nutshell, it stated that Raymond had little chance of success and that he had a difficult time processing and retaining information. It also stated that his eye hand coordination was delayed; I didn’t see anything positive in his IEP.  One comment after another summed up that Raymond wouldn’t succeed in life.  I immediately accepted the challenge!  

Teaching Methods that Worked!

One of the first methods I used with Raymond was to have him read a passage and then answer the questions at the end.  Then, he would turn to the back of the book and immediately check his answers. I always said, “You should spend as much time in the back of the book as you do in the front.”  If you have a textbook that explains why the answer is “A” and not B, C, or D, you can learn quite a bit from that.  More importantly, I needed to get him reading, focused, and confident. I engaged another student, “Jeff,” who helped him back in the cell blocks. I would have them do this exercise together and then compare answers.  Why did one person pick “A” and the other pick the answer “C”?  I then had them argue their answers.  So, now we have him reading, working on staying focused, and learning how to interact with another human being. 

My favorite teaching strategy, which I used for the first time in Raymond’s class is using a game called Scruples to teach thesis statements.  I would give each student a Yes or No card from the Scruples game. They are not allowed to show each other their card.  Then I have them pick a Scruples question such as, “If you were hungry, would you steal for food?”  If you have a “No” card you must answer “No” and give me three reasons why you would say no in the form of a complete sentence and thesis statement. Raymond liked this activity and always participated.  He wrote his very first five paragraph essay from this exercise in my class.

Creative Learning

Contrary to his IEP, Raymond was actually very smart.  He just wasn’t smart in the traditional sense.  I remember the day I was teaching adding fractions with different denominators.  I looked at Raymond and wondered why he wasn’t taking notes or writing anything down.  He finally stopped me and said, “Ms. Sara.  I get what you are trying to do and all, but it really doesn’t make sense to me.” (He was referring to finding common denominators.)  “But,” he continues, “I am always getting the same answer as you.”  I knew I needed to investigate this because as we all know, students have wonderful, creative ways of getting the “right answer”, but their logic is not always time tested and only works in certain circumstances.  When Raymond explained how he was able to continually get the answer to these math questions, I quickly realized that Raymond was an acutely visual learner and could see measurements and numbers in his mind’s eye. He was calling on his sort time as a carpenter to “see” the measurements. After that, and having a better understanding of Raymond’s learning style, I would teach Raymond math concepts but always made sure that everything was in a visual context.

Never Underestimate Your Student

About three months passed and I was scheduling a test for 5 other students. One day toward the end of class, Raymond approached me and asked if he could take the test.  I am sure he saw the surprise on my face.  My father always said, “Sara, you’re a newspaper, not a book.  You don’t have to open you up to read you.”   Raymond immediately….read me.  His face fell.  I quickly backtracked.  First of all, Raymond was more than likely going back to prison, hopefully, to serve time but not on death row. Wouldn’t it be better for him to continue his education in prison and learn more than just what he gained in these three months?  Secondly, the question kept ringing in my head.  Is he even ready? His pre-test scores indicate he will barely pass the official test.  So many questions ran through my head. And he knew it.  So, we talked.  After asking Raymond all these questions and hearing what he had to say, he finally convinced me by merely stating, “It’s my money, isn’t it? If I am willing to take the risk, won’t you?”  He was right.  At that time, the students paid for their tests in the county jail, so if they want to take the test, who am I to stop them?  So it was agreed upon that he would sit for the official GED test that was taking place in just a few weeks. 

Learning that Sticks

The day finally came for Raymond to take the official High School Equivalency test. (Of course, back then, it was the GED.)  He came into class the following day beaming with that wide smile of his grinning from ear to ear.  “So?” I asked the students. “How did it go?”  Raymond started talking first.  “Oh my gosh, Ms. Sara! I think I did great!”  (That was the last thing I thought Raymond would say.)  So we had a dialog about how he did and how he remembered certain concepts he learned.  “Especially the Scruples game,” he said.  “My essay question was about something I would collect and why.”  (And please no lectures on how teachers are not supposed to know what the essay question was on the test.  Since this was from 1996, I think we can move on from that.) Oh my! I thought. This guy has been on death row for 15 years…since he was 19. What in the world did he collect other than time?  So I asked, “What in the world did you say?” He answered confidently, “Well, I remembered the Scruples game and needing to list three things, so I said my grandfather collected baseball cards, and then my dad did, and then he passed them onto me.”  “Wow, Raymond!  That was awesome! So who has these baseball cards now?”  “No one,” he answered with that familiar smile.  “I don’t have any baseball cards.  I don’t even have a dad, but you told me to make something up even if we didn’t know what to write and that Scruples game helped me do that.”  (I believe my actual words were a little more colorful than “make something up” that started with a B and S but thought I would keep this clean.)  

Lessons Learned

Raymond passed his GED with solid scores.  His math was barely passing, but passing nonetheless.  Raymond went back to prison after appealing his murder case and was given 60 years in prison.  In the State of Indiana the law back in 1996 was a day credit for everyday served, so he actually served 30 total years. He had already served 15 years on death row, so he had 15 left to serve.  He was released in 2014 and as far as the state records show, he has not been in jail or prison since. 

With Raymond I learned that looks can be deceiving; IEP’s can be a hinderance, and students often times know themselves better than the teacher.  Together Raymond and I figured out what would work and wouldn’t work in his learning.  We worked together to find the methods that would stick.  It wasn’t easy and he worked hard to overcome his disabilities.  So 23 years and roughly 1,000 students later, when people ask me what one of my greatest accomplishments is in teaching at the jail, I always say without hesitation….”That’s easy. His name was Raymond.” 

Author
Sara Z. Gutting