Notes From The Field: A Different Kind of Prison
That afternoon, we found ourselves bumping along a remote, dusty road in South Carolina. And though Merritt and I were determined to visit this particular compound, I watched with grief as my phone gasped for its last satellite signal. Finally, the premises were in sight, and we turned into the parking lot. We were startled to be met with the hard gaze of an armed guard. He stood cowboy style, hand on gun, behind a cold metal fence. When we made our way past him to the secur
Student: I think this school should be shut down.
I started off the roundtable in this rural South Carolina school the way I always do. I asked, “What can y’all tell me about your school that you think the adults in your school don’t know?” One student responded without hesitation: "I think this school should be shut down. I’m serious, no one here, not the principal, not the students, not the teachers, cares at all." It was an oddly warm winter day in South Carolina. Merrit and I arrived at the front door of the crumbling bu
