Thursday, September 11, 2008

Out of prison vs. out of academia

After our discussion in class yesterday about the world of the academy being so vastly different from that of the world outside, my mind started reeling.  I spent quite a bit of time comparing this to different things in my own life (namely volleyball)  and whether or not it was possible to reconnect to an outside world.  Luckily for me I got distracted with playing volleyball and then went home to have dinner thus leaving behind my thought process.  I was watching a true life story of a woman who has been in prison for basically the last 20 years.  She knows no other life but prison, knows no other people except her peers in prison and peers that got in trouble with her originally.  

My head started to reel again while watching this.  The comparison is huge!  It's virtually opposite of  the academic world that we were talking about in class but it is incredibly relevant.  How does one begin to adapt to a new life?  A new way of thought?  A new way of seeing the world around them?  I'm interested to hear what people think about this.  Is it a fresh start?  Will this woman get the same start that our author (I'm blanking on his name right now) got when he left the academy?


3 comments:

Joe said...

Have you seen "Locked Up Abroad" on National Geographic yet? It's this really awesome show where Westerner's end up being put into "Third-World" Prison's. It's a total cultre shock every time because there is absolute ZERO % tourism factor in a nation's prison; it's raw and unfiltered criminal culture. Check it out. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6805110957204691354&ei=EGjNSJyBI5myqAPYnu3HAg&q=locked+up+abroad&vt=lf&hl=en This one is in Bangladesh.

Jackie said...

NO I haven't seen this show but I am glad you gave me the link, I'll go check it out.

Jackie said...
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