So Am I: What Teaching in a Prison Taught Me [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. "Merle Morrow's new book, "So Am I," is both a corking good story and a heartfelt testimonial to the human spirit. She quotes Eleanor Roosevelt, "You must do the thing you think you cannot do" - and does it. She ventures into a maximum-security prison to teach "hard-core criminals" - and discovers rich and complex individuals. She tells their stories in a way that wrenches our heart - and makes us laugh - and re-think our stereotypes. It is not just she, but the men who "do the thing they think they cannot do." They write poetry, master math, secure degrees, turn their lives around. Their stories are inspiring, and they have found in Morrow the expert author to give them voice. For she is honest - about horrendous crimes committed, the men who succeed and those who do not, moments of triumph and despair. The book can be read on many levels. It is an intimate memoir, a peek behind the dark curtain, an expose of the shameful flaws in our criminal justice system. But the reader does not end angry and depressed. The book is a story of hope, humor, and hospitality, and leaves the spirit soaring." -Drew Leder, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy, Loyola University Maryland, author of Sparks of the Divine: Finding Inspiration in Our Everyday World; The Soul Knows No Bars: Inmates Reflect on Life, Death and Hope; Games for the Soul: 40 Playful Ways to Find Fun and Fulfillment in a Stressful World; and others. "I served 39 years in prison for a crime I did not commit, seven of them where Merle Morrow taught. Prisoners say that people who have not served time cannot understand the prison experience. This author did. She allowed herself to become one with the men: to feel their anger, their pain, and their joy. So Am I is an accurate and compelling depiction of the prison and the men in it." -Walter Lomax Director of Maryland Restorative Justice Initiative, author of Mandala Conquers the Cut Merle Helen Morrow practiced law for 30 years. Ten years of her career included investigations in local jails and state prisons for the U. S. Department of Justice. After retirement, she taught a high school equivalency class in a men's maximum security prison for three years and in a pre-release unit for a year. She also has volunteered as an adult literacy tutor in a county jail and in two state prisons. Currently, she volunteers with the Maryland Restorative Justice Initiative, which awarded her its Volunteer of the Year Award for 2008. She and her husband live in Maryland, sharing their now-empty nest with a rescued American Pit Bull Terrier they named Lily.

So Am I : What Teaching in A Prison Taught Me, Used [Paperback]