DYS Youth Reflects on His Educational Experiences

In response to a CommonWealth Magazine article on education in the Department of Youth Services (DYS), a young man who has spent time in DYS reflects on his educational experiences in the system:

“Honestly speaking as a man who has actually lived it, D.Y.S has a lot of reconstruction to do, especially in the education department. Funds have to be being either misused or the state simply needs to boost funding. My first experience of school in D.Y.S was how the hell I am in class with a grown man! And why are we doing word searches? I was fourteen and it was my first time locked up. I was in for a month because of violation of probation. From the first day on, school in there was always disrespectful to my intellect. The teachers had a wild range of ages in their classes so they kept work easy enough for everyone to get.

“Over all, I’ve probably lost a little more than two years of my life to D.Y.S. I’ve been shipped to many different settings such as facilities in metro area, northeastern, and western Mass. And through my journey, I’ve matured a great deal, and it finally hit me that the facilities in the more suburban settings make the facilities in poorer settings look like the bottom of the refrigerator. I always found it funny that the suburban D.Y.S always had better schools curriculums, better teachers, cleaner kept facilities, more helpful clinicians. I learned more there than I have ever learned in school. It was just that I need supplies, encouragement to do the right thing, and that little extra push to help create a better mindset that changed my life.”

Shakespeare as an Alternative for Juveniles

A court in Western Massachusetts is referring juveniles to a Shakespeare troupe as an alternative to community service or lock-up.  This type of program takes into account some positive youth development principles, focusing on youths’ strengths and building positive relationships and roles for them.  What other programs are out there that take this approach?

Caught in the act: Juveniles sentenced to Shakespeare

By Louise Kennedy, Globe Staff  |  May 18, 2010

LENOX — Tonight, 13 actors will take the stage at Shakespeare & Company in “Henry V.’’ Nothing so unusual in that — except that these are teenagers, none older than 17, and they have been sentenced to perform this play.

The show is the culmination of a five-week intensive program called Shakespeare in the Courts, a nationally recognized initiative now celebrating its 10th year. Berkshire Juvenile Court Judge Judith Locke has sent these adjudicated offenders — found guilty of such adolescent crimes as fighting, drinking, stealing, and destroying property — not to lockup or conventional community service, but to four afternoons a week of acting exercises, rehearsal, and Shakespearean study.  Read more…