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Book is mightier than pen
Published March 20, 2004
ANGLETON — Some of the best conversations about literature English professor Robert Waxler ever had were with a handful of convicts.
It was an experiment in Massachusetts meant to remedy what one judge had lamented as “turnstile” justice, Waxler said. The same defendants seemed to be coming in and out of his court.
A small class of repeat offen-ders, averaging about 20 convictions each, was selected in the early 1990s to read and study great literary works: Ernest Heming-way’s “The Old Man and the Sea” and Jack London’s “The Sea Wolf” for starters. The men’s education levels ranged from eighth grade to community college.
The resulting discussions were not what Waxler had expected.
“It caught all of us by surprise,” he said. “Even I was surprised by the passion, intelligence and perception these guys brought to the table.”
More than a decade later, the experiment, now called “Changing Lives Through Literature,” has blossomed across the country and even in England. It has introduced more than 3,400 troubled men, women and children to the great works. In Brazoria County, the only Texas county to adopt the program, about 700 probationers have participated, said Lawrence Jablecki, who is in charge of coordinating the program in the county.
James Blackstock, a probate judge in Brazoria County, is one of the program’s advocates.
“To hear them discuss these works of literature,” Blackstock said, “they get so passionate about this.”
Recidivism rates of those who participate is low: about 18 percent, compared to 45 percent of those with similar records who did not have such a curriculum, Waxler said. Success also means savings. It costs $30,000 to keep someone in jail for a year, but only a few hundred dollars for someone to take the course, he said.
It starts with teaching the students to think and examine, said Jablecki, who recently retired as head of adult probation in the county.
In one of his classes, Jablecki discussed a writer who proposed that everyone in the world was an actor in a play, performing some pre-ordained role. The students, in much cruder terms, called it nonsense. By expanding on their reaction, he could lead them into a deeper discussion about choices and responsibility.
The trick is not always to dangle the carrot of a better wages through education, Waxler said. That doesn’t work with a drug dealer making $5,000 a week.
“What we’re talking about is the importance of the humanities,” Waxler said. “Literature and philosophy can make people self-reflective and see clearly how individuals fit in a human community.”
That same drug dealer was reading stories to his daughter by the end of the program, he said.
Waxler was in Brazoria County this week in part to document the success of its version, one of the best in the country, he said. A $180,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities is going toward developing a Web site and CD-ROM of the program so regions across the world can have a resource in developing their own versions.
Having a program in Texas, generally regarded as a conservative state compared to Massachusetts, is especially important to show the “Changing Lives Through Literature” program goes beyond politics, Waxler said.
Courses in the county’s program are taught at Brazosport College, Alvin Community College and Rice University. While Jablecki was not sure of the county’s recidivism rate from participants, he constantly hears success stories about it, he said. One man drew on what he learned during a disagreement with his boss.
“He said he wanted to slug him,” Jablecki said. “And then he thought, ‘What would Socrates have done in that situation?’”
For some, completing the program is their first shot at success, Waxler said. They proudly hang their completion certificate on the wall even if it’s the only award they have to hang.
For others, it’s simply a chance to gain a voice and join the great conversation of humanity.
“This is probably the first time a number of these people have been listened to,” Blackstock said. “They’re being talked with, not talked down to.”
Michael Baker is a reporter for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 237-0150.
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