| In a university classroom in downtown Calgary, a group of homeless, mentally ill and low-income adults of various ages and ethnicities are discussing Trying, a play staged by Theatre Calgary, which they recently attended.
They listen intently to a guest lecture by Theatre Calgary’s artistic associate Eric Rose and then offer perceptive comments on the characters in the play and the underlying themes.
The students are all members of Storefront 101, a program run through the Mustard Seed, which offers university level humanities courses, accredited by St. Mary’s University College, to low-income and disadvantaged Calgarians. The program has been around since 2003 and is based on the Clemente Course in Humanities, which was founded by journalist, lecturer and author Earl Shorris in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1995, and has inspired similar programs around the world since then.
Storefront 101 classes consist of a three-hour lecture on Monday night and then a three-hour tutorial on Thursdays. Students receive free tuition and books, free child care and transportation, plus an evening meal, in order to remove any potential barriers. The course also includes free field trips to theatre performances and art galleries. Volunteer instructors donate their time to teach the class.
In order to get into the program, students have to go through an interview and their reading and writing ability is assessed to make sure they’re at a university level.
Wayne Baldwin, who is bipolar and has had to be hospitalized on occasion due to the severity of his mental illness, is taking his third Storefront 101 class. The current class is creative writing, and he previously took art history and philosophy.
"It’s reminded me that I can learn," says Baldwin.
He says it makes a huge difference to "be able to participate within an understanding environment."
Baldwin says the hardest thing about being mentally ill is "first and foremost the stigma."
"Why label myself broken, because if you know I have a mental health condition, that’s what you know and that’s all you know," says Baldwin.
"It’s reminded me that I can stay with something. My ability to focus on anything for any length of time is compromised because of my mental health and medication and so on. I don’t appreciate not stretching at all. I have too much incomplete and this is something that feels good to see it through."
Clint Smith, another student, says the course has allowed him to find himself again after experiencing a nervous breakdown.
"Something dramatic happened to me. I did want to fall off the face of the earth. Now this has helped me come back," says Smith. "This is helping me get back into society because other people in the class are in the same boat."
Smith says he wouldn’t feel safe in a more mainstream classroom.
"There’d be walls around me," he says.
The creative writing class has inspired him to think about writing a memoir.
"This is giving me ideas to jot my memories down – Not saying I’m going to publish it, but I’ve lived a very interesting life," he says.
Tara Hyland-Russell, associate dean of students at St. Mary’s University College, taught an English class at Storefront 101, and is on the working committee for the program. She says the goal behind the program is fairly radical, and she’s seen students "absolutely transformed."
"Because it’s based on the humanities and the Socratic method of teaching, it’s really trying to get people to think about their place in society and themselves as thinking, contributing beings. Once they start to do that, for many students they feel like they have the right to be an active participant in society.
"People come to us having trouble with addictions, homelessness, abuse, all sorts of difficult life circumstances, and often have kind of given up or feel that they do not belong. Part of it is giving back to them a sense that they do belong and they can think and they don’t have to be trapped in that cycle."
Hyland-Russell says the program allows students to develop critical thinking skills that enable them to "think outside the box that has imposed barriers on their life" and to "access the world of ideas."
"I think part of the power of humanities is the power of the imagination to engage with something that they had never thought of before – and if you can imagine a different possibility then it can happen," she says.
Dennis Slater, who is currently teaching the Storefront 101 creative writing class, says he’s discovered some "incredible writers" among the group.
He says teaching the course has made him think about how those who have had an opportunity to attend university "should perhaps be more grateful for the fact that we do have it and recognize that not everyone does."
Slater points out that the Clemente Course, which Storefront 101 is based on, is "rooted in the belief that an education in the humanities can change life expectations, life goals, and the way that lives are lived."
Tom Bowman is an example of how that can happen. After Bowman’s wife and infant son died he fell into alcoholism and chronic depression. He also had to go on AISH because of medical problems.
"I ended up exploring on the dark side of life for quite awhile," he says. "I was completely hopeless. I had absolutely no hope…. I had lost the ability to dream. I was in a place where life was so absolutely dismal."
Bowman says Storefront 101 took him out of his social isolation and allowed him to re-integrate with society. He’s now taking his first year of social work at Mount Royal College and is currently doing a practicum at the Mustard Seed.
"I am so liberated now. I have just blossomed. I’m so in tune with joy," he says.
For Bowman, Storefront 101 was the catalyst that allowed him to take control over his life and to dream again. |
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