PUBLISHED WORKS
As If There Were No Tomorrow - The Saga of a Jailhouse Teacher
Tom Delaney
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Cognitive deficiencies, cultural disparities, environmental deterrents are just a few of the challenges that many educators face in a typical classroom. Tom Delaney’s classroom, however, was far from typical and so were his students. He taught behavior-disordered teens and pre-teens who were incarcerated for crimes that ranged from petty theft to murder. All ages were confined to the same learning space.
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Tom’s raison d'etre was to devise ways to meet the academic needs of children who had difficulty seeing beyond their present disparity. His efforts were often frustrated by bureaucratic restraints that were part and parcel of teaching behind bars. Nevertheless, he found creative ways to alter students' negative perspective on learning and on life. Many of his former students, once inmates in some of Georgia’s toughest youth prisons, are now valued members of their communities.
This is a chronicle born of the writer’s unique struggles for and sometimes with his students in his quest to offer them a better "tomorrow." Tom shares his four decades of adaptive classroom teaching, along with an inspirational philosophy laced with humor. Also included is an “attitude check.” Teachers are invited to determine if their personal views and methods are promoting a congenial learning atmosphere or precipitating a classroom crisis.
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No Tomorrow is a heart-warming appeal to educators to ignore the road blocks and go that extra mile to create a learning environment in which no student needs ever feel left behind.
Reaching Out
The official literary magazine created by Dr. Tom Delaney and students of the Lorenzo Benn Youth Development Campus
Reaching Out was conceived as a class project to showcase the writing skills of incarcerated juveniles in Southwest Atlanta. But it became more than just a learning activity at the YDC. It grew to include works of students from a variety of learning institutions and to become an inspiration for them to reach beyond their "bars." Though the content of the magazine constantly evolved to embrace a wider range of young writers and artists, the premise on which the magazine was founded never changed: “The creative spirit should never be shackled; the potential for greatness, never suppressed.”