The Joy of Tutoring

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The Joy of Tutoring - in Prison

By Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette

Published: 06/16/2003

In one desk sits Richard Baker, a 40-year-old inmate at the Danville Correctional Center, in Danville, Ill., who never made it beyond the ninth grade and now serves a 30-year prison sentence.
In a desk next to him sits 81-year-old Ruth Clodfelder.
An avid reader, grandmother and community volunteer, Clodfelder guides Baker through a reading exercise in his workbook in the education center at the Danville prison.
On the surface, Clodfelder seems like the last person to whom Baker would ever pay any attention. In reality, Baker not only listens to and accepts direction from Clodfelder, he respects her.
'I really look up to her,' he said. 'I read a whole lot better. I've come a long way. ... I can't wait to see her, and I always try to compliment her. I wish we had more tutors like her.'
Kind, intelligent, yet direct, Clodfelder knows what an unlikely 'match' she is with most of the men she tutors.
'I realize I'm white, I'm a woman and I have a lot of gray hair,' she said. 'But I try to use that to my advantage. They ask my opinion, and I tell them, but I always preface it by saying it's my opinion.'
When Clodfelder first signed up to be a reading tutor with Danville Area Community College's Reader's Route, the prison did have more tutors like her. Two, along with Clodfelder, became tutors at the newly built Danville Correctional Center.
With just more than a year of tutoring experience, Clodfelder said she would try the prison, and if she were uncomfortable, she wouldn't continue. 'I'm still here,' she said.
Clodfelder is the last of the three tutors. One retired; the other also retired and later died.
But Clodfelder continues volunteering her time once a week, driving from Veedersburg, Ind., to the prison east of Danville and spending most of her Wed-nesdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., tutoring one-on-one, inmates in John Butchko's adult basic education class at the prison.
'She's an icon,' Butchko said of Clodfelder. 'She has a quality that's lacking even out in the world. She can deal with anyone ... of any age. They know that it comes from her heart.'
With her caring attitude, wit and mastery of the English language, Clodfelder seems the perfect combination of grandmother and librarian. She's an effective reading tutor, but not because she's a softy.
'You're talking about inmates,' said Butchko, explaining that most of the men Clod- felder tutors are mandated by the state to take his basic education classes. 'So, we're talking about major attitude changes that have to take place.'
Butchko works very closely with Clodfelder and passes off to her the more motivated inmates, but he insists that she has an amazing ability to qualm their attitude and self-esteem issues and find within them a person who's willing to learn, and willing to work at learning.
Many of the inmates, Butchko said, are sitting down with Clodfelder to read a book, and for the first time, comprehend what they read.
'You wouldn't believe how a person will act and react around her,' he said. 'Everything's positive. These guys are like, 'Here's my book. I'm ready to get started.' '
Always professional, Clodfelder treats each inmate as a person. She's stern, but gentle; admonishing, yet encouraging; sincere, but funny. And she believes that each of her students has the ability to succeed.
'Many times, they need a boost in self-esteem - they need to know that they can do something,' she said. 'I consciously boost their self-esteem by congratulating them on the progress they make. Thinking logically is often another thing that must be encouraged.'
Clodfelder says the toughest part is sitting down with an inmate the first time. 'Each person is an individual, and you have to dig around in your mind to find what's going to work with this guy,' she said.
They may learn to read in very different ways, but each inmate who finds the will to learn draws some inspiration from Clodfelder's unselfish commitment to them. 'I've had many of them tell me that if I made the effort to be here, they knew that they had better be here,' she said.
Butchko said he has heard many of the inmates talking to each other about Clodfelder coming to the prison to work with them as a volunteer. 'They're amazed that she gives up her free time; that she comes in and doesn't get paid,' he said. 'That says it, I think.'
Clodfelder decided to become a tutor because her husband once worked in a factory where he saw the difficulties some of his co-workers faced on the job because they couldn't read. Coming from a family of teachers and having taught some kindergarten herself, Clodfelder was deeply touched.
'It started me thinking how awful it must be to go through life being unable to read,' said Clodfelder, who later saw a newspaper ad seeking reading tutors for DACC's Reader's Route. She volunteered, and at first, she tutored students in English as a Second Language classes and GED classes, until the request came from the prison.
Clodfelder said she is asked most often whether she is ever afraid when tutoring inmates.
'No, I'm not,' said Clodfelder, who credits her no-nonsense approach to being the youngest of five children.
'Being the youngest of five puts you on the skillet a lot. ... You need to learn how to take care of yourself,' she said. 'I've never experienced discourtesy or fear in here. I never have.'
Butchko said he respects Clodfelder a great deal, and they work as a team. 'She's not a tutor; I see her as one of us,' he said.
The most enjoyable part of giving her time to others is watching them improve, especially when something 'clicks.'
'It's wonderful watching a person who thinks he cannot read become a reader, and watching the growth their minds make,' she said. 'It's about helping someone learn to read, but it's greater than that. It's been very beneficial.' For the inmates, the goal is not just reading. The ultimate goal is changing their lives when they finally get back to the outside world.
Baker still has several years to serve, but he realizes he gave up too soon on education as a kid and knows it's his answer to walking away from a life of crime. 'I'm trying to change my life,' he said. 'I still can't write like I'd like, but I'm working on it real hard.'
Clodfelder never knows how much of an impact she may have had on a life. It's strictly forbidden for any of the inmates to ever have any contact with her once they're free.
She sometimes wonders about the fate of her students, she said, but not knowing doesn't faze her determination to make a difference.
She'll continue to tutor inmates, Clodfelder said, 'as long as they'll have me.'

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