And He Began to
Teach Them Many
Things
An Interview with Professor
Matthew Harrison
ELIZABETH JEAN-MARIE
For the Fall 2014 issue, Matthew Harrison wrote
an article called “Invited to Care” about his calling
to teach mathematics to those in prison.
EJ: When did you write the article?
MH: I wrote it about a year ago, I got some feedback from
some friends and then submitted it to Cornerstone. I always
had some of a little bit unexplained interest in doing work
involved with prison—I didn’t know exactly what it was.
I remember thinking about how I could get involved.
The only thing that seemed feasible for me was teaching;
I wasn’t a clergyman, and I didn’t do any social work.
So I thought, maybe I could teach. I looked it up, you
know, wondering, “Do they offer that in Rhode Island?”
And they do. The Community College of Rhode Island
runs classes in all of the state prisons in RI, and offers
associate’s degrees. Every year they have a graduation
and a handful of students get their degree.
I was on sabbatical two years ago, and at first I thought
maybe I shouldn’t start teaching in prisons now since I’m
pre-tenure and doing a prison thing wouldn’t protect my
position enough. At the end of the summer, I had gone
to bed one night, I was lying there, I had this very clear
sensation that I was at a crossroads in my life, I could either
follow the prison thing or not. So I got up, sent an email to
this guy at like midnight or something, saying I’m at Brown
and I wonder if there’s a way to get involved with teaching.
He emailed back immediately saying, “I need you to start
teaching now.” I said, “Wait, wait, I was just looking to
explore” and he told me to send him a CV. It turns out that
he had a math teacher that had just backed out. She backed
out, and I sent the email the same day. You could call it a
coincidence, but I really think that God had a hand in that.
I got tossed in teaching business math at the men’s
maximum security. I’ve been teaching there two or
three years now. We’ve gotten other Brown faculty,
Janet Blume, and some grad students involved. I
envision Brown growing some sort of program.
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CORNERSTONE Magazine
Because of that moment and that coincidence, I feel like I was
called into this. I’ve always understood the prison work as a
religious calling. You would think I would have a lot of things
to say about prison, but really I just go in and teach math. In
the beginning I struggled with whether it was okay to care
for someone who had done something wrong. I decided yes,
which from a Christian perspective, makes sense. You always
think about other people who might be more deserving; but
I came to terms with it, and that was the essay I wrote.
EJ: You came to terms with it because of your faith?
MH: Being a Christian and having that worldview, that’s
gonna be how I come to terms with a lot of things. Those
emotions I had, connected to learning about what this
person had done...my faith resolved that for me. It definitely
wasn’t the Christian perspective that caused me to question
whether I should be there—I tend to be on the love and
compassion side of Christianity rather than the fire and
brimstone. I think it was just a visceral reaction to have to
work with somebody who’s done something terrible and
to care about them and care about if they’ve done well
in math, it was that weird contrast in my mind. My faith
was helpful in resolving that. It wasn’t paradoxical.
You would think I would have a lot
of things to say about prison, but
really I just go in and teach math.
EJ: So how do we show grace and mercy to others?
MH: I have led a sheltered life; I haven’t felt really wronged
by people. So this was the first time that I really—not that
I needed to forgive anyone personally, but I could imagine
myself somewhat in the shoes of the victims. Someone said
(I can’t remember who) that there’s a distinction between
justice and compassion. Helping people who really need it,
someone who is impoverished, whom life has given lots of
problems to, and needs a job? That’s almost more justice.
Whereas compassion is more like helping people who don’t
deserve it; you could argue that it’s somehow more just to
not have that. I remember that it sort of resonated with me in
the prison context that Christ calls us to be compassionate
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