If you want to know what it is like living here, read “A Gathering of Old Men” by Ernest Gaines, a great, great short novel by a celebrated local author. I hear the movie is pretty good too (although it can’t be half as good as a book). A shout-out to all the UGLYs out there- you know who you are.
ANGOLA- I envisioned being a brutish caveman, tearing off chunks of flesh from my very own oversized turkey drumstick. I sat with one hand holding my grilled turkey leg and the other my colddrink (as they say down here when talking about soda). My sun-baked resting place, a lower step on one of many watchtowers, was strategically located inside the grounds of Angola- Louisiana’s oldest and most notorious State Penitentiary. The leg had been slowly roasted over coals by ‘trustworthy’ inmates, or trustees, and then wrapped in foil as an attempt to civilize the meat before its purchase of four dollars. No, the reason more my lack of communication as of lately is not been due to my incarceration. And as I found out, under the right circumstances, a high security prison can be a pleasant space to spend an afternoon. Angola has earned its reputation as being as rough as they come, housing some violent and well-known occupants including the blues singer Leadbelly. The entire compound sits on several thousand acres of steamy swamps and forests, full of poisonous snakes and alligators. The community of prisoners spends long hours in the hot sun, raising their own cattle and growing their own crops. They even have their own label of hot sauce.
I found myself at the infamous Angola Prison Rodeo out of pure curiosity. While rodeos are not already dangerous enough, the prison rodeo hosted such novelty events as wild cow milking and stealing the poker chips fastened between the sharp horns of a raging bull. Also at the Rodeo was an unusual selection of crafts, each and everyone handmade during all of those hours locked behind bars. Something that was not revealed to me until later was the identity of the craft sellers: all freely roaming inmates. These people had proven themselves trustworthy and been deemed trustees by the powers at be. I thought all those tatoos and crooked teeth could have meant something. The atmosphere of this outdoor event was different from anything I could have imagined. I sifted through piles of snakeskin belts, alligator wallets, and carefully crafted metalwork and even furniture. There were well over a few hundred ‘vendors’ at the event. I walked away purchasing gifts including a hand stamped and painted leather dog collar for my foster dog, Domino, whom I am temporarily taking care of. He is a rescue from Hurricane Katrina, as are hundreds of other dogs at a local shelter that have yet to find homes.
Back across the Mississippi in New Roads, the animal that is school is not calming down or becoming more predicable. The only constant is change. My students bring new challenges to the classroom every hour; the more common include loud and offensive arguments, fights, and now the whole girl-boy thing. Some of the students find the thug life or life of a gangster as their ideal. Others can envision more promising alternatives but peer pressure often brings students to become disillusioned from school and academics, even at 10 or 11 years of age. Spring is not even around the corner but love notes are so commonplace that I find my pockets full of torn or crumpled-up wads of paper by the end of most days.
I have many reasons for staying positive. On most days my students are so engaged in their experiments and other classwork that they don’t want to leave. I have students that began the year turned off to school but who are now routinely staying after school for the science club and who come to school telling me about the experiments that they have made at home or about the wild animals they have observed. The natural environments of Louisiana are some of the most unique in North America. Now my students are beginning to see how the forests and swamps in their back yards and down the street can be so interesting. An attempt was made to introduce a small perch, which I had caught in a local pond, to the class aquarium. The Perch’s life came to a dramatic halt in no more than a week’s time. In its last seconds of life, in the middle of class, the perch made a valiant succession of leaps out of the water before floating to its demise on the bottom, its gills no longer moving in and out. Although traumatic, I tried to take advantage of this teaching moment by asking the students what they thought caused the death of the fish and how could we test to find out the actual cause. We tested the water’s temperature and oxygen content and made observations about any other factors in and around the tank that could have killed the fish. The students came up with several conclusions. We will be introducing a new aquatic animal in the coming weeks, hopefully with more long-term success.
The Giant Toads are surviving the curious poking of many fifth graders without any apparent problem. Students who began the year with intense phobias of these warted creatures are now feeding and handling them with ease.
My great childhood friend North Moench and Ella, his great coworker, traveling companion, and girlfriend, came down to stay with me for a week. They really got a taste of what it is like to be a fifth grade teacher when they gave presentations on Environmental Education with their Leave No Trace program. The students loved learning about how long it really takes for different kinds of litter and trash to break down and how to be more aware of their impact on the natural world. They also gave a presentation on many of the different wilderness areas around the country- something that was very special for those students who have never been out of Louisiana. It was sad when they left as not only were the students and I going to miss them but their help in my classroom throughout the week made it, by far, the best week of class this fall for me and probably the students too. It is truly amazing what affect a little outside help and fresh perspective can have on both students and teachers alike.
Thanksgiving is over and I am thoroughly sedated by the excesses of deep fried turkey, mustard greens, cornmeal muffins, Mississippi mud cake, and sweet tea. The folks here welcome me to their homes and treat me as kin. But that is another story.
Check out LeaveNoTrace.org and click on the traveling trainers section for more details on what Ella and North are up to. For those who will be in Bellingham for the holidays, I will be in town from December 23 through January 2.
