Dee Seligman shares about her experience volunteering at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
CLANG! banged the metal bars of San Quentin’s Main Gate as I entered the prison for the first time. As a retired community college English professor in my eighties, I had volunteered to tutor incarcerated men writing skills at Mt. Tamalpais College, San Quentin’s two-year college.
I assumed I had something to teach and they had a lot to learn. But my experience differed from my assumptions. The men made up for past educational shortfalls with a dogged commitment to higher education. I’ll never forget one student telling me his daily routine: Wake up at 3 am; spend an hour in prayer and meditation; hit the books in his cell for a few hours before reporting for his work.
I marveled at his self-discipline to complete school work. He may be a bit unique, but all students experience restricted Internet access; few quiet study spaces; noise; lights; roll calls; orders; and almost no privacy. They find workarounds because they value higher education.
Learning in prison is a two-way street. I learn as much from these students as they do from me. I learned one can hold onto one’s uniqueness, even in cramped shared cells far from home; one can create music and stories; one can support democracy even without the right to vote by handwriting non-partisan postcards to Get Out the Vote.