PD*Poll: Teens sentenced to poetry classes
Categories: Teens & tweens, Alcohol & drugs
For the drunken teens who trashed poet Robert Frost's former home in Ripton Vermont last December, justice has been served in a rather unusual way. As you may recall, a former Middlebury college student threw an impromptu party at the historical farmhouse last year and things got way out of control. The nearly 50 guests broke furniture and china, discharged the fire extinguishers, and ruined the carpet with the by-products of too much drink and drugs. They caused over $10,000 in damage and created quite an uproar in the small Vermont town.
Their day of reckoning has finally arrived and their punishment goes beyond community service and public embarrassment. Twenty-five of the party-goers have been sentenced to attend a poetry class where they will learn about the work of the man whose home they nearly destroyed.
Prosecutor John Quinn explains the unusual punishment: "I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people's property in the future and would also learn something from the experience," he says.
The two-day session is being led by Jay Parini, a Frost biographer and college professor who was happy to donate his time for the cause. He draws on the Frost poem "The Road Not Taken" for its obvious parallels to this case. "This is where Frost is relevant. This is the irony of this whole thing. You come to a path in the woods where you can say, `Shall I go to this party and get drunk out of my mind?"' he said. "Everything in life is choices."
I have my doubts about whether a poetry class could teach a teen about respect for the property of others. But if the professor can just get that one message across - that everything in life really is a choice - maybe these kids will learn to choose their roads more carefully.
Their day of reckoning has finally arrived and their punishment goes beyond community service and public embarrassment. Twenty-five of the party-goers have been sentenced to attend a poetry class where they will learn about the work of the man whose home they nearly destroyed.
Prosecutor John Quinn explains the unusual punishment: "I guess I was thinking that if these teens had a better understanding of who Robert Frost was and his contribution to our society, that they would be more respectful of other people's property in the future and would also learn something from the experience," he says.
The two-day session is being led by Jay Parini, a Frost biographer and college professor who was happy to donate his time for the cause. He draws on the Frost poem "The Road Not Taken" for its obvious parallels to this case. "This is where Frost is relevant. This is the irony of this whole thing. You come to a path in the woods where you can say, `Shall I go to this party and get drunk out of my mind?"' he said. "Everything in life is choices."
I have my doubts about whether a poetry class could teach a teen about respect for the property of others. But if the professor can just get that one message across - that everything in life really is a choice - maybe these kids will learn to choose their roads more carefully.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Uncle Roger 6-04-2008 @ 2:03PM
Sure it will work... didn't you see Dangerous Minds?
Really, it kind of depends on the kids themselves -- do they have a history of problems or was this a one-time bad choice? If the former, then perhaps, yes, it will take more than two days of poetry to put them on a different path.
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Dolly 6-05-2008 @ 11:04PM
I think they should have been made to clean up their mess when it was. Nothing like vomit to make you think twice about getting drunk. They should pay for the repairs by having to work and they should take the poetry class. Their vandalism was despicable!
cameron 6-06-2008 @ 12:00AM
I use to teach middle and high school students. These kids could care less about this so called punishment. I am sure they are laughing about how they got off easy. If education had a long term effect on how children behave, than this country should have some of the best not worst behave children in the world. Parents and families are the only people who really have an impact on how children behave. As many idealistic new teachers soon realize; a teacher's impact is minimal. The reasons children act the way they do is, because society / parents allow it. "The boys will be boys" attitude can and does justify inappropriate behavior. This society went from being to harsh on children to allowing them the freedom to act do as they please without consequences. Why did we decide that the rights of the individual supersede those of the group or society? Although I don't believe that the criminal justice system is the solution for our children; rationalizing there behavior or allowing teenagers and children to act narcissistic and selfish is not the solution either. Unfortunately, unless these students and their parents are held more accountable for this act of vandalism (such as cleaning up and repairing the home or being placed on some sort of probation with long hours of community service) this selfish behavior will continue. This is the “I won’t believe it till I see it generation”. Unless they pay a real consequence for their behavior, a consequence that effects there personal life and freedom it won’t have an impact on there behavior. This is definitely not poetic justice.
Slartibartfast 6-06-2008 @ 3:44AM
...And if Charlie Manson was forced to listen to the Beatles' music for two days, he'd know how wrong he was for having those people killed.
Cameron,
What kind of teacher were you? It couldn't POSSIBLY have been English.
C hristy 6-08-2008 @ 1:50PM
Not that it makes much difference to most, but if memory serves me, these were high school students, not college students who trashed this historic home. I don't think Middlebury College students would have committed such an act. Middlebury College is quite an elite school, better known as a "little Ivy" school. The juveniles involved would normally have just been slapped on the wrist and sent home to their parents so I think that the punishment is quite clever.
c_rousseau05 6-04-2008 @ 2:55PM
I think it should be more than two days, more like two months but I think it's a pretty good idea. They trashed a historical house, that deserves some money paid to the city and some community service.......but in trashing that house they trashed the memory of a great poet. I hope that two days of Frost classes will instill in them the greatness and memory of what this poet meant to the literary world and what he still means. Maybe they won't stop trashing houses but perhaps they'll get an appreciation and feel guilty about what they did to the previous home and memory of such a great man.
What are college kids doing having a party in a home like that anyway? Was it rented to them? Did they own it? It didn't say in the article....if it was rented maybe the people who rent that property will think twice about who they let in there and run some background checks. If they're going to cry about damages to a historic home they should at least be more weary about who they let step inside.
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Royal 6-05-2008 @ 10:07PM
If I remember correctly they broke into the home forcibly while it was closed for the winter. Since there was no heat on, they burned the furnishings to get warm, while they drank and broke and defaced the rest of what was in there.
Bobby G 6-06-2008 @ 1:53AM
My gut feeling is that this method is brilliant. Robert Frost has always been my favorite poet since Jr. High when we read, "The Outsiders", by S. E. Hinton and it included Robert Frost's poem, "Nature's First Green Is Gold". I have books of his poetry. I won't take up this space writing a fan letter.
I have numerous reasons why I think this is a valuable method of doing something good and meting out appropriate justice for those thoughtless criminals. Here is my list:
1) They need to know who's home they wrecked. Spending two days studying Frost's poetry would surely affect at least a few of the offenders. It would be like being forced to spend a couple of days with someone who's house you robbed and realizing how special that person was and what an awful thing you had done to them.
2) This activity of forcing the creeps to think for 2 days is a better social intervention than 2 days in jail or picking up trash. Some of them might even find some inspiration to be a better person instead of some other meaningless consequences.
3) It's not looking through rose colored glasses to think this way. It is the punishment fitting the crime. I can't think of a more fitting way to make those kids actually feel held accountable than to force the perps into understanding the impact their actions have had on thousands of literate people unlike them. They need to know some people on this planet think beyond their next text message or rave. Some people, as individuals, leave a HUGE and lasting legacy such as Robert Frost's. And they just crapped all over it like he was nothing. Let them find out he was someone who had made a difference; someone who would never trash someone else's house.
4) Make them feel GUILTY! They deserve to feel guilty! They need to be humbled for what they did. It's just NOT COOL MAN!! You are a freak! Look what the f**k you did to Robert Frost's house, you a**! How can you look at yourself in the mirror!!! (Let's hope at least some of the parents are literate enough to have laid that on their kids.)
That's all I've got. I'll leave with my favorite Robert Frost poem:
* Nature's first green is gold,
* Her hardest hue to hold.
* Her early leaf's a flower,
* But, only so an hour.
* Then leaf subsides to leaf,
* As Eden sank in grief
* And, dawn goes down to day.
* Nothing gold can stay.
Its funny. I still think of this poem every time I see a new blade of grass or new leaves on a small plant. They are gold. The poem goes on to point out how delicate that is and temporary. Look what they did to Robert Frost's home. Nothing gold can stay.
Heidi 6-08-2008 @ 7:32PM
By the way, my posts were meant as a reply to yours. Hope you saw them.
antono gonzalez 6-05-2008 @ 3:05AM
Very current studies in the way the brain's chemistry changes during adolescence may bring a small consolation. In my purely conceptual understanding of these chemistry changes, I see a truly drastic and difficult change going on during the teen-age years. I wonder where those utterly primitive impulses come and go: are they eliminated like a poisonous substance is cleaned by the kidneys?. Or horror, do they go on be a permanent portion of the brain chemistryof cultural destructor?
I would not give them the privilege of reading more of my poetry if they did the same thing to my house. I would sentence to an obligatory biochemistry brain scan, have them pay for it, and have the results published in a scientific journal. Maybe that would give them some sense of privacy, property, respect for the arts, and deserved doubts about their future.
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Heidi 6-05-2008 @ 7:16AM
I live in Vermont and this incident was huge news. These were not college kids - these were 16 & 17 year old boys. The party was planned by a 17 year old. Only one or two people involved were over 21 and they were charged criminally with furnishing the alcohol. This was a party planned by kids that got more out of hand than they were prepared to deal with. Luckily no one drove away and was killed. I think this punishment was fair and I hope they learn something. By the way, they've also been required to perform community service and, I believe, $$ restitution.
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Chaz 6-05-2008 @ 10:06PM
Another Liberal Judge doing his "Duty". Crap like this decision is why the country is half way down for the toilet.
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Roger 6-06-2008 @ 12:28AM
This judge needs to be made to go and read the poetry to them, so that when they laugh and disrespect HIM, He will think twice the next time he trys to diaper Thugs
Chaz 6-05-2008 @ 10:12PM
Hey Heidi,when they all drove away were there any tickets for DWI,or just the usual slap on the wrist for drunk driving from the liberal judge.
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Char 6-06-2008 @ 2:17AM
She only said that she was happy that no one was killed while driving drunk! If more people would think that way instead of always being negative, maybe these kids would've never thought of doing something so vile!
Heidi 7-08-2008 @ 3:19PM
Chaz, I believe the vandalism was discovered after the fact. No one was arrested at the scene. The arrests were made several days later after an investigation. Of course, being kids, that wasn't hard as they were running their mouths.
steve 6-05-2008 @ 10:23PM
Absolute wacko B/S this is what is wrong with todays children , they respect nothing or anyone , they are not taught that their are consequences for poor behaviour , they are not taught that they should respect others and their property , they don't even know what respect is ,..... this is just another example of the lack of poor leadership and parenting ,......it is more of what we see a liberal left wing wacko society ,........
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Will 6-06-2008 @ 2:04PM
Thank you for allowing your political views to stereotype an entire generation. Throw out all the "well back in my day..." comments you want and see how far they get you at fixing all of us "ignorant and disrespectful" children. Or maybe instead of crying about the world "going to hell" you could open your mind and eyes enough to help us make a better future. Just a thought. But what do I know, I'm only 16, I should be out partying and trashing houses the way we teenagers do...
Randy Bush 6-06-2008 @ 7:36PM
You think? Militarism is the brave new world we live in and the rules have been made for at least the past eight years by neo-cons who have not only the 'me first' attitude but also the 'me only' so-called mentality.
Knee jerks don't make it, man.
jak 6-05-2008 @ 10:38PM
Christ have we gotten to be such wimps. All victims of something so let's continue to just be gentle with the little bastards.
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