Expecting the worst when invited to visit a writing class at Central Juvenile Hall, a lock up for Los Angeles’s most violent teenage offenders, Mark Salzman didn’t expect to end up teaching there.
Today at 1 p.m. the First Year Experience Program and Humanities Division will be holding a panel discussion where students and graduates from Salzman’s Inside Out Writers Program will be answering questions and speaking about their experiences.
After his experience, Salzman wrote a book titled, “True Notebooks,” about his first-hand experience while teaching a class full of “high-risk” youth.
Included in this book were entries from the students about the life-changing events of their pasts, fears, confusions, regrets and aspirations.
They wrote about what led them to crime and gangs, about love for their mothers and anger toward their (mostly absent) fathers.
“I think it’s awesome that these people have decided to come and speak to college students,” Maria Sanchez, nursing major, said. “I can’t wait to hear about their struggle and how they were able to emerge and succeed from it.”
Most of all, the students wrote about trying to find some reason to believe in themselves and others in spite of all that has gone wrong.
In this discussion, some students from Cynthia Silverman’s English 84 class will be attending.
“I want my students to recognize that people can be redeemed and they can change,” Cynthia Silverman, professor of reading, said. “Some of the young men who served their time have gone on to make a meaningful contribution to their communities, and that is important to acknowledge.”
Students of Silverman’s class have learned that writing may be tedious sometimes, but it helps provide an outlet for students to express themselves.
“Students have learned that people who are bright can commit terrible acts yet retain their humanity,” Silverman said. “Additionally we looked at how writing offers us a window and tool to know our deepest selves.”