Ancient Ideas and Modern Life Skills in UK Prisons

Around 100,000 individuals in the UK are serving prison sentences. Some have access to training in skills to help them find employment on release, but far too few are helped to ask the big questions about their purpose in life, to which ancient Greek thought has rich answers. 

What would the best version of myself look like? What would I regret not doing on my deathbed? Will I be happier if I try to be a good person? What is true friendship and how best can choose whom to love? How do I make decisions? How do I become an expert communicator? 

Over the last 18 months, with the help of my colleague Prof. Arlene Holmes-Henderson and other allies, and in collaboration with NOVUS Education, I have achieved a long-held ambition to bring ancient ethics, rhetoric and art, mostly via Aristotle, to incarcerated students. The results have been profound and moving, as documented in the Guardian. 

The feedback has been extraordinary. Students tell us that the ‘potential’ session has helped them thoroughly reevaluate what they could achieve in life; performing a Greek tragedy with improvised props and discussing the moral and emotional issues it raises have helped them see how they have been misled or provoked; when we bestow the trophy for best actor (decided by classroom vote) there are tears and palpable pride; rhetorical insights have already helped them deescalate conflict on the wing. 

I have found these sessions to be the most fulfilling experience of pedagogy in my entire working life. Neglected men and women whose brains have had no stimulation bar daytime television are so thirsty for knowledge and philosophy that it is painful to leave at the end of each course. 

That is why, in January, Arlene and I trained eleven prison educators to deliver the course so it can reach far more students. But we want to continue delivering it ourselves and the funding Durham University generously gave us to set up the initiative has run out. 

We teach for free, of course, but do need to stay in Travelodges and take trains. I have just donated £4000 myself to kickstart our new fundraiser, aiming to get to the £20,000 we need to reach eight or more prisons over the next two years. Please help if you can here. 

An important note on the donation website. When you get to the payment page that looks like this you can remove the tip JustGiving wants by clicking ENTER CUSTOM AMOUNT and changing it to 0.00. 

We are also developing three further courses: an advanced Ethics course, by popular demand, which will think more about intentions, dilemmas, apologies, death, bereavement and suicide; a content-based course on Classical Civilisation and Ancient History for those unlikely to be released; and a course on literacy using ancient linguistic stems to help with spelling and syntax. 

I’ll continue to update progress via this blog. Please, please help us enhance the life chances of some of the most marginalised members of the community.