Education can set people free, in more ways than one

I’m a bit behind on my podcasts, but I had to point to this one from All in the Mind about a week and a half ago, about why people kill.

I found this piece from guest James Gilligan completely fascinating:

When I was directing the mental health services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States we did a study to find out what program in the prisons had been most effective in preventing re-offending or recidivism after prisoners left the prison. And we found one program that had been 100% successful over a 25-year period with not one of these individuals returning to prison because of a new crime.

And that program was the prisoners getting a college degree while in prison.

You know, when you’re an educator, it’s easy to be so bogged down in the day to day routine of marking and managing students and preparing assignments that the idea that education can be transformative is something that you just give lip service too.

It takes something like that to make you realize that education truly can transform people for the better.