"Inside-Out is about losing your baggage, losing your preconceptions, walking into a space with an open mind and an open heart, ready to listen, ready to share, ready to argue, ready to engage, ready to change minds, ready to have your mind changed, ready to deal with people in a compassionate, empathizing, loving way without losing any of the intellectual rigor that we want to have in the classroom. That to me is a model for communication."
James Forman, Jr. is a professor of law at Yale Law School.
"In an Inside-Out class, there's tremendous potential for participants to learn with and from one another. That's the most valuable part of the experience for them."
Shaul Cohen is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon.
"Theater courses taught in prisons provide an opportunity to think about the various masks we put on to survive. These courses can be a path toward self-awareness for both inside and outside students."
Listen to Laura Biagi, a professor in theater, talk about the course she taught at Cook County Jail through DePaul University.
Hear from one of our trainers, Ella Turenne, about what a typical Inside-Out faculty training week looks like. This was recorded during the Philadelphia area training in January 2017. The training took place at a retreat center called Pendle Hill and at Graterford Prison (now SCI-Phoenix).
Wade Deisman, a professor and administrator at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver, British Columbia, discusses how teaching an Inside-Out course in a prison renewed his sense of mission as an educator.
"While I was at the Inside-Out training with the California prison think tank members, I just felt like I belonged there. That's where I needed to be – making a difference."
Dr. Robin Bell reflects on her experience of taking the Inside-Out training in 2019. She wants to apply her new facilitation skills to her work supporting returning citizens.
“I learned more this week about learning than I ever have in formal education. I learned in a very powerful way the importance of process. Too often we get caught up in outcomes (which are important), but spend little time reflecting on how we learn. I am absolutely blown away by what I now consider the best learning experience of my life.”
(Inside-Out Instructor, reflecting on the weeklong training)
“…I now understand why... the type of subject taught is irrelevant. That is, while the academic material is important, it is not about conveying the information to the students. Rather, it is about getting students to unfold and create, first, a relationship with themselves. By doing so, that is when students will have the ability to connect with both themselves and others on a deeper level, which is why the academic subject is irrelevant. Essentially, what I will take from this training is that despite how scholarly or academically knowledgeable I may be, it is not my job to push my achievements and knowledge of my specialty toward the students. I am only there to facilitate that deeper human connection, and that is essential.”
(Inside-Out Instructor, reflecting on the weeklong training)
