Liza Jessie Peterson

First published on Booking in Heels.

I really, quite intensely, disliked this book. Firstly, Liza Peterson managed three months in full-time teaching before she before she quit. I’m not sure where the ‘year’ part of the title came from. The author is very unlikeable, the book distinctly does not have the ring of truth and it ends up being more about the glory of art, and racial issues, than about incarcerated youths. It’s not about the criminal justice system – it’s about Liza Peterson.

Her persona as an artist is a constant theme of this book. People walk up to her on several occasions and say things like, ‘”Even if I didn’t already know you were an artist, I would have guessed it just by the way you decorated your room,”‘ and ‘”We artists have difficulty in adjusting to the energy here.”‘ It’s okay that teaching incarcerated adolescents isn’t her first love, of course it is, but she acts like she’s resentfully dragging this huge burden around with her. And so, naturally, people apparently come up to her magically recognising that she has an artistic spirit and feeling the need to tell her so, constantly.

That’s my main issue with this book, and I know it’s a very offensive line for me to take. I don’t mean it to be a personal attack on the author, as she was there and I wasn’t, but I can’t get over how false this book feels. ‘Embroidered,’ at the very least. She’s delivering heart-wrenching soliloquies on her first day that leave her class speechless. She instantly quells any classroom disturbance with her razor-sharp wit, and comes out tops in any disagreement. She has in-depth discussions with coworkers on the bus about racial injustice, also on her first day. Could I teach incarcerated adolescents? Is that in my skill set? No, absolutely not. Do I doubt that Liza Peterson pulled it off quite this well? Yes. Yes, I do.

Passionately I’m pointing and perspiring as I walk back and forth in front of the class like a preacher delivering the sermon. The kids are leaning forward with laser-focused attention. Their body language encourages me. I start to feel lightheaded and am suddenly aware of energy moving quickly through my body. It’s an electric sensation. I am catching the spirit. One kid is leaning so far on the edge of the seat, it’s a wonder he doesn’t slip onto the floor. He has tears in his eyes as he embraces my words, shaking his head affirmatively as I speak. I am in a zone and he is riding the wave with me.

It’d be a lot more impressive if it didn’t happen every other day.

I know that there are a huge amount of problems with racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, and also with how adolescents are dealt with generally. Combine the two, and the teenagers in Ms Peterson’s classes face a raw deal. Unfortunately, I don’t think this book helps. She throws out some statistics every so often but doesn’t state where they came from, and doesn’t provide references or a bibliography. She also, problematically, states as fact that the government decides when children are seven whether they will go to prison based on their reading age, and then twists the system to make sure they get there because they have a quota to fill. She states this as fact, and does not provide references.

On a personal note, I struggled to connect with the religious and spiritual references. The author firmly believes in past lives and spirits, which is fine by me. But she uses this as a reason to haaaaaate a fellow teacher with the casual reason that she must have done something heinous in a previous life.

She makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, my spidey-senses tingle; my intuition says she’s a dangerous and treacherous woman. I don’t know why and I have no rational explanation for it. The woman has triggered some genetic memory in me. I once got a vision of her that dropped into my spirit. I saw a lady of gallantry, a white heifer in the post-Reconstruction South who lusted after black men and would cry rape if they rejected her advances or if she got caught with her bustle up. Then she’d fan herself while sipping a mint julep as her Black buck was being lynched in front of a bloodthirsty cheering mob of savages for sport

…

My protective spirit for the boys is on high alert and my aversion toward her is so palpable that every time I see her I get a momentous rage to slap her fucking face. This definitely has to be some past-life shit for real, because on face value it makes absolutely no sense why I despise this woman, who has done nothing to me. And it’s not because she’s white.

Wow. That’s a lot to dump on a fellow teacher you don’t know. You know what the woman ends up doing to the author? Nothing. She’s forgotten about, other that casual references to Little Miss Muffet.

Aside from my issues with the author and the content, I also wasn’t a fan of the writing. The author jumps from amusing anecdote to lengthy, angry rants without any warning, which can be very jarring. A lot of the same phrases and comments are repeated again and again, which I suppose makes sense considering she was only there three months. She refers to herself as ‘thug mama’ constantly and uses incongruous slang even in the prose sections. I found it really difficult to get on board with it. She does provide a glossary at the end of the words that the teenagers use, which is helpful, but I’d prefer that those were used solely within the dialogue.

I’m disappointed because I was very much interested in the subject matter, and it wasn’t really discussed. I wanted to know how the system works – are teenagers required to access schooling in prison? Are they separated by age or ability? Is there a curriculum and, if so, is it the same as in regular schools? She just doesn’t say. Instead, we get an ego-stroking, barely researched tribute to Liza Jessie Peterson and the place where she worked for three whole months.… (plus d'informations)

Liza Peterson does a valuable job, one that many would consider thankless. Peterson teaches teenagers incarcerated at Riker's Island. Her class is a rotating cast of characters. Her students are awaiting trial, transfer, or their eighteenth birthdays, when they will be sent elsewhere. Peterson has minimal resources and is held to state standards that have little meaning inside the prison environment. In all of this Peterson believes in her students. She tells them they can always be better, and she lives it. She recognizes the traumas that have dominated her students' lives, but she still holds them to high standards. She teaches her students through subjects that speak to their experience, like black history. By all accounts, Peterson sounds like a great teacher. The kids are clearly connected with her. I was sad to discover that Peterson had left her position at Rikers. The environment and the commute had been wreaking havoc. And this speaks, of course, to the bigger problem of getting good teachers into environments that most need them. The environment at Rikers is stifling.

This is also a book about problems in the prison system. Probably most readers inclined to pick up a book such as this are aware of and sensitive to the numerous issues in the American prison system. This memoir illustrates some of the ways in which the prison-industrial complex is brutalizing kids. Many of the kids Peterson teaches are terrified. They appear tough, because tough is necessary to survive. Under that thin exterior, however, they are kids, who are terrified of their environment. This book shows how the prison system is damaging society more than protecting it. Highly recommended for those interested in education and the justice system.… (plus d'informations)

The cover caught my eye, the young woman is flaming red and with her chin held up high. In this case the cover gives you some insight into the book. Liza Jessie Peterson is foremost an artist but she had to face reality and get a steady paying job to keep on living.

Her best opportunity was teaching at Riker's Island a prison that included young imprisoned youth, mostly 16 to 18 years old. She accepted and subjected herself to a deadening schedule of getting up at 4:30 a.m just to get to the prison. When she got there, she had face unusual stress. With guards standing by in the hallway, and a group of students who were ready to challenge the teacher on the first day, she had to be tough and draw her boundaries first and later she concentrated on what a lot of people in prisons do not get. She had to win their trust, both she and they were angry but she was determined.

She had to teach them to to use the inspiration of Obama becoming president that year for anything is possible, to get them started on getting committed to some part of education, to recognize the tremendous amount sorrow, abuse or violence that they had already received as young individuals.

Also to realize that they can still contribute to society, it is not too late. She inspired them with music, poetry,posters, history of black leaders, especially those who had been in prison and made a contribution to society.

For the details of how she did this, you need to read the book. The jail language is different and she provides "Rikers Rug Rats Slang" in the front of the book. It is a bit gritty but this book will teach you a lot about people.

I received this Advanced Reading Copy by making a selection from Amazon Vine books but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review. I also posted this review only on sites meant for reading not for selling.… (plus d'informations)