School behind bars

By Leone Hineline

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0962838411
• ISBN13: 9780962838415
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: O.M. Pub
• Length: 220 Pages

Customer Reviews

Memoirs of Leone Hineline, Correctional Educator

This book is a memoir written by Jane Jablonski in collaboration with Leone Hineline, who taught behind bars for 34 years at the Child Study Institute (CSI) in Toledo, Ohio. This collaboration resulted when Hineline retired from teaching in 1975 and later contacted Ray Levy, a retired journalism professor, to find a writer for her memoir. Hineline died in 1987, four years before the publication of this book. Because Hineline worked behind bars, she encountered less political interference to her teaching methods than state school teachers generally encounter in their careers. As a result, many of her teaching methods are only now being discovered and implemented in state schools. She believed in guided discovery, starting with the assessment of the child's talents and leading them from what they can do to what the teacher is helping them to discover. Her approach was not only geared toward academics, but also in character education. From her very first day at CSI, Hineline brought dogs to school to assist her in reaching her students - the first was named "No Sir" and the last was "Friday". Hineline also had the "connections" to bring an occasional celebrity to visit her class. Because her mother-in-law was Flora Ward Hineline, Toledo's only Jewess impresario, she was able to persuade famous entertainers like Duke Ellington to visit CSI and her students. This book covers an interesting period in Toledo's history, beginning with WWII through the mid-70s. Chapter 21 is titled "The New Breed of Juvenile Delinquents" and notes the effects of television and other electronic media on those youngsters from our post-modern generation of illiterates that came to her school behind bars, though neither Hineline nor Jablonski analyses the root of this new and bizarre behavior - the great Idol of Entertainment. Every teacher will be renewed in their committment to their vocation when reading this book. Hineline stresses the importance of love, empathy, and self-esteem for our troubled youth. Her daily lesson plans, rather than being dictated by a national curriculum, were premised on the notion to "stimulate their senses and build on their successes". Her philosophy of teaching was several decades ahead of her time.