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Rural System…Creating a Lasting Superior Rural System
The Didactron
Educators' Lives in a High-Tech Teaching-Learning Space ©
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When Chance Carrow built his house, he knew he would someday build a patio beside it. He really didn't know he would. He didn't build it. He didn't even put in a glass door to open on to it when it was built. But he did put in a large window with extra support, so that if he did, a door could be easily inset. He didn't discuss it with anyone. It was part of his image of his future house. It was part of his design. He was to live in his suboptimal house for a long time. It did not have the patio and he had over-built at one window. He continually used the systems idea of feedforward, designing a system to be wrong now, and wrong later, but best over the long run.
Chance had told no one of his intent to create a small version of the Didactron near a community where strip mining for coal had once occurred.
He told no one of his expectation that the concept would be implemented in the western states, then Mexico, then other countries. In one state alone there are 50,000 acres of abandoned surface coal mines. Strip or contour mines they were called. They had been rooted and gouged out of the mountains by bulldozers after their soldier-trained operators had become available following World War II. The layers of coal under mountains of earth were whittled off and what was left, piles of "overburden," rocks, ponds, and trenches were left. A moonscape with rock cliffs as much as 80 feet tall were left on the steep mountain sides when the last truck of coal pulled out. New laws require cleanup, grading and plantings, but the thousands of acres of abandoned mines continue to erode and to dump sediment into streams and lakes. They continue to be an insult to millions of viewers and to affront all who think land should be productive.…at least of scrub oaks.
For 10 years, Chance had designed the coal-field Didactron. It really wasn't a new design, more like using blueprint copies of the ongoing work. He could have achieved it in 6 months had he been assigned and resources committed to it. It took 6 years. His anger, unlike that of so many other people, could be turned toward solutions. He turned his anger with his small children into suggestions and instructions. He had seen Russell Ackoff's Redesigning the Future and only years later, like the jump of a giant spark in some science fiction B-movie, he had seen where the Didactron fit. The corner posts were in place. The bridge could be built, using the Didactron, between restoring people and restoring the land.
The people to be restored were in prison. The land to be restored was that of the abandoned mines. The money to do it had been the constraint. He could not see the answer -- as if the electric poles had been too far apart for the spark to jump. The answer was in re-directing prison funds. He knew he had a market -- at least 300,000 people in prison who had committed non-violent crimes. These were in for the property crimes: petty theft, forgery and bad checks, shoplifting, pick pocketing, burglary, and car theft; the high-risk ventures: bribery, con games, gambling; the drug crimes: use and sales; and the intercourse related crimes: prostitution, pornography, and now-illegal sex acts between consenting adults.
He pictured them in his mind as interactive, located at the corners of a tetrahedron. People have basic needs he theorized: property or resources to do work; excitement or variety; reduction in noise, frustration, or dissonance; and caring love, agape. There were a million non-violent people in jailor on parole who didn't know how to meet one or more of these basic needs. They went about getting them in socially unacceptable ways. These were the ones who had been detected and processed. At least one out of every 200 people a person passes on the streets is or has been a bona fide crook. A few get caught; fewer go to prison; few are returned to society as normal.
Of course he couldn't tackle the national problem (at least not right away; feedforward was a way of life-thought for him. He had begun to discuss strategies with Helen Starity and Karl Spence for educating a national population.
He negotiated a small construction materials grant and initially a 20 percent saving to the state on maintaining each prison. He would house and work with them for $20,000 per head per year. He knew that "rehabilitation" was now recognized as a nonsense word. He knew that prisons were a means of social revenge. They didn't work, meaning they didn't achieve any of their stated objectives…except revenge, and that very poorly. In a success-oriented society, it was one of the few places where a failing, inefficient system was tolerated and perpetuated. There were notable exceptions, but apparently they were notable because they were so exceptional. What they did could not be bottled or packaged in some way to address the enormous and growing problem. The problem, as he saw it, was humanizing a special group -- about 2 out of every 1000 people in the U.S.
Chance had gone after the project in a way that was uncharacteristic for him. Usually in academia the idea is the thing. It is seen as good, and then peddled until someone buys. Chance went political.At the first prison breakout of the year, he went with his local legislator to the governor. All of the prisons of all of the states had problems -- overcrowding, inflation, legal suits, deteriorating conditions, and increasing numbers of prisoners. He was _ waiting for the "last straw" in his state. The press was converging on the topic of prisoners because of the breakout. It had brought jails back into public view. They quickly forgot them, like pain or a disgusting relative.
It was as if he had lifted a great weight. He called it experimental. (After six years of operating the Didactron it was about as experimental as cooking pancakes.) He would take 64 prisoners off their hands, eventually 100 per year. He would require only $800,000 in state funds (no Federal funds for many reasons) from the Governor's Emergency and Discretionary funds. He would cut costs per prisoner by $5,000 each, and he would guarantee a social score improvement of 10 percent or greater. He would forego $1,000 per prisoner for every percent loss. That would be his penalty for failing. He would receive a bonus $1,000 for every percentage gain above 10 percent.
The state would agree to house 50 prisoners, 25 of each sex, in a special prison for 6 months. In the first group of prisoners with whom he would work, none would be alcoholics or addicts.They would all have terms unconditionally exceeding three years. During this six-month period, the full weight of social retribution would be on each person. There would be no amenities. Each person would be in a solitary cell. They would have no personal property. They would be issued coveralls, boots, socks and underwear. That is all. They would have toiletries, none of which could be formed into weapons. They would be allowed one library book in the cell, no radios or television. They could receive no phone calls and only one visit. Only mail from the family would be delivered. They could not use tobacco.
During this period they would be given a complete physical and psychological workup as specified by Chance.
During this period all appropriate dental, plastic surgery, visual and hearing difficulties would be overcome to the fullest extent possible.
Two cafeteria lines with different quality and amounts of food would be used to reinforce grooming norms. Strength, muscle tone, and flexibility scores would be rewarded in simple ways such as change of bedding or time in the outdoor area. The treatment was to be humane, but boring, very negative, and with no possibility that the public would claim the conditions were luxurious or the attitude lenient. It was to be widely publicized.
At the end of six months, Chance contacted the prisoners. He knew of studies demonstrating the same behavioral changes could be accomplished with prisoners committing violent crimes as well as with these prisoners. He knew that there are very few people who repeat a violent crime. A son blows away a perverse, incestuous, and idiotic father. He has no other grudges in life. A woman kills a man who has, under the letter of the law, stolen everything from her and her family and triggered her mother's suicide and her father's alcoholism. She committed a violent crime. Chance was certain of the utility of his program for most of the prison population.
Chance had a taped message played to all prisoners. He gave each a copy of it. He then met with them in groups of 16 and offered them an opportunity to leave prison and become a member of a new community. They would go to an abandoned mine site (about 50 acres) and there as a group under the supervision of a cadre, build a community, learn trades and diverse skills, and build capital.
Most accepted based on the TV, graphics, and slide presentations that he made over two days. The program was strictly voluntary; non-participants could be returned to the present conditions.
Chance recruited a cadre using full-page ads in four major national newspapers. The ads explained the program and sought concerned, loving people who were interested in learning and working in a new social venture. He selected from the more than 1,000 applicants a variety of psychologists, educators, skilled trades people, programmers, and farmers. Within the Didactron they were rapidly educated in the processes, philosophy and operation of the new community. Their education was for 6 days a week, 6 hours per day for the entire six months. They had formed a team. They role-played and solved; they knew themselves well (better than before) and the others on the team. They were a self-supportive group with a mission. They were also making reasonable salaries. Chance knew no program could be stabilized and sustained for the long-run, like this one must be, based on altruism.
There was plenty of that around, but it must be a splendid overlay or extra, like dessert to an otherwise fine, substantial meal. There were not many new parts to the project. It soon became known as The Orchard. Not having new parts was one way Chance Carrow won many arguments about it. He could usually point to some place where one idea had worked even though that larger project may have failed. He was a synthesizer and integrator. He claimed that he built systems of little systems.
A key part of the project was that as soon as the group had built structures -- these were 5-family, buildings with a common and utility area, usually earth-sheltered -- then they could live there with their present or new families who must voluntarily come and contract for certain work and education and limitations on travel, visits, purchases, etc.
The decision was entirely up to the family group. Were the conditions of separation worse than those of living a relatively structured life in the new community? Rationality was encouraged; there were only two options, or perhaps three if back-to-prison was considered.
All of the power of the Didactron was focused on the participants. There was vocational experience for everyone. It was viewed to be very important for everyone to know how hard it is to dig a hole, move a rock, run a transit, thread a pipe, drive a tractor, run a power saw. Everyone learned health along with first aid.
Everyone wore newly designed clothing. It was very strong, very practical, wash and wear, and had fine lines and style. There were a variety of shades of the same color. There were distinctive hat and belt tassels that gave everyone a special touch of color. The recently designed hat could be worn in many ways and it began to reflect the personality of the wearer.
The boots, issued the first day of prison, better footwear than almost any had ever worn, were already a part of the costume. The participants all began to take on a special look, one increasingly with pride in accomplishment, new knowledge, and comraderie.
They could stay forever in this new community and every hour of work allowed them to buy their residence and receive wages. Those who did not elect to stay were paid for their work. Most from the first groups stayed. They lived among things they had built themselves. They had invested; they had friends. They had begun partial payment to their victims.
Everyone planted a tree. It was marked carefully and a sign placed by it. A person could always be assured his or her tree would be there. Everyone built a stone wall around the base of an old tree on a steep slope near the bull dozed area. Earth was used to fill the crib behind the wall. This tree, now growing in a small flat area was also theirs. They pruned it if appropriate. Throughout the area, large stone walls were built. These too were personal. Each crew of four worked on "their" wall. It, like their own trees, could be shown proudly to someone later -- perhaps a son or daughter. A record of successes and visible accomplishments was being developed.
Those who stayed became a part of the community.The importance of the cadre, while great, became less and less as instruction, counseling, and other work was undertaken by those who, having served their terms, elected to stay. The system overcame the objection that those released from prison were returned to the environment that produced them. Some did, of course, but most stayed in the environment in which they earned economic security, and found friends and useful work, as well as opportunities -- almost requirements -- for continuous intellectual growth and learning.
Within the group that stayed there were dimensions of the fellowship of alcoholics anonymous, convicted criminals helping criminals. There were elements of an older religious phrase: people blessed to be a blessing. There was always newness for each person because each group brought new challenges upon which they may work. All of the community evolved into the cadre. A kindly lift of a large stone to the next rank on the wall may be as influential to a new citizen as a statement by the head psychologist. All participated and all appreciated the work of each.
A goat, burro, or mule was assigned each person when they arrived. A herdsman assisted and taught but each person was responsible for his animal. Perhaps unfriendly with their colleagues, the prisoners had these animals and they were their responsibility and 'friend'. They fed, milked, groomed, and otherwise cared for each animal.
The goats wore locally-crafted bells. The goats were genetically and nutritionally superior for great milk production. Partially handicapped citizens tended the herds which grazed the newly created meadows and helped convert some areas into productive pasture. The goats, bells, and colorfully dressed people in the mountains created scenes as beautiful as any out of a Swiss travel poster.
The participants full-well understood their signed contracts which had been read aloud to them in the presence of their selected witnesses (avoiding any non-reader problem). Each person agreed to allow themselves to be observed. Each contributed data to the data system of the Didactron. Changes in weight, health, self-esteem, attitudes, and values were all to be monitored and used to develop predictive-equations allowing the causative factors contributing to desired change to be determined. Computerized feedback systems wrote reports that said x was ineffective but y seemed to be causing change. The Orchard was continually being shifted and adjusted, computer assisted, as if it were a giant spacecraft heading toward some distant planet. The destination always seemed to be in question for society. Chance Carrow, however, had a quality-of-life index for the group and a personal index for each citizen. The computer computed a weekly index. There was an element of competition that arose in the high score and in score change. It was exactly what he wanted and expected. Goals with feedback produce desired systems…and citizens.
There was grave fear within the governor's staff about how the program would work out, especially in the poverty and boom-and-bust conditions of the coal field. Chance's design provided for this. First, the state had already agreed to pay the prisoner's costs. He could not loose (or could society). Then the work and development was profit producing. He had planned diversification -- an orchard,vineyard, bees, gardens, nursery, dairy, crafts, furniture, forestry… and others. Most of these were once called cottage industries. He operated them all as if they were divisions of a large corporation. The conglomerate was profitable because it was computer-managed, diversified, capitalized, and operated and staffed by only self-interested citizens. All had a stake in its development and success.
Success, or some feeling of it, was the prime topic of early cadre meetings. "We must allow them to experience success within one hour of our contacts." He set the standards at first; years later he openly discussed them, seeking precision through a more democratic process. "Perhaps 15 minutes would have been better; 2 hours?" The creative juices flowed; the suggestions for successes sounded trivial: fastest group to load the bus; first to complete more than 200 feet of trail in a day; first to get your weight down to the desired level - anything…from recognition of a person who called a cadre member by name, a person particularly courteous, someone who stayed neatly groomed all day."
Anything; these people must experience success. Success, esteem,friendship. These are the interactives. We must cause them to achieve successes. Don't let them fail at first. Later; OK. Don't give them assignments or tasks beyond their ability. Later; OK. Move up as quickly as you desire and with evidence, but start at the bottom. We must get some desired behavior of any type and then reward it. That is our definition of success."
Chance rarely worked with the cadre now, but he did at first. He was an incredibly good teacher; he was the teacher-leader. Over a hundred years of prison reform efforts and failures were to be on his shoulders. Warmth, enthusiasm, empathy, and knowledge, the teacher's basics, were his, because he had good parent-models for them and because he worked at perfecting them.
The prisoners -- now citizens -- were first housed in tents with wooden floors, a stove, four beds and chests. It was cold and temperature is a wonderful motivator. Temporary walls for rooms went up in modular buildings very fast. The tents were vacated for the group living area. It was much more comfortable. Progressively the separate houses were built.
Controls and regulations were progressively relaxed. There were few community conflicts since this was a separate, self-contained community. People in each project village had, for all practical purposes, everything needed.
Feedback systems were rampant. Feedback was perhaps one of the more distinctive aspects of the community. There were positive or negative responses to almost all actions. These included pay, simple rewards, progressive moves within groups, accountable responsibilities, increased freedoms, computer-produced reports of progress, and simple suggestion-box like operations (available at a computer terminal).
The previous work in the Didactron on computer systems allowed instantaneous analyses to be performed for any citizen by a counselor, psychologist, or doctor. This system overcame the problems in other institutions -- so badly understaffed for the caseloads that they can get only file-folder type reference to an inmate and that information may be months or years out-dated.
Within The Orchard, psychological tests were correlated with medical evaluations and a simulation system available that responded to, "Has Mr. X passed the educational unit on courtship? If yes, what will be the consequences on his self-esteem index if I regroup him with Miss Y who is a physical and social dominant?"
"What five actions may allow this person to achieve a one percent increase in their overall quality-of-life score within 2 weeks?" The answers are a function of the techniques in the system, the analyses to date, and the condition of the person at the time of the query.
Computer-assisted instruction was widely used, in part for its effectiveness; in part because it responded to the specific weaknesses, limits, and experiences of each adult allowing rapid progress; in part because of its impersonal, patient, and non-judgmental characteristics. A computer system managed the instruction.
A computer program taught computer programming. Programs created were used with the animal, garden, and forestry programs. On request, programs were purchased and soon a functional software library was available on site. The Internet connected them to enormous datasets and software. They mapped and budgeted, simulated and optimized on the computer. Their computer 'game' was a new community, optimal for them and their children.
Some built trails, other built sheds for the herders, and shelters and windbreaks for the goats. Some fashioned wooden signs and bird houses. Others operated a rail splitter and preservative dip for fence wood. Some cooked, did laundry, monitored instruments, worked in a nursery, did sculpture, operated heavy equipment, managed a mule team that helped place large terrace wall stones. Some wrote and prepared printing copy. All learned fire fighting. A special hot-shot fire fighting crew was formed and become so well known for its effectiveness that it was flown to major fires all over the eastern U.S.
One group designed an orientation program for visitors, another for the interrupters, those people who prevent new programs from ever becoming realistic because there is always someone poking a new probe in the 'experiment.' Another group developed an improved program for orienting prisoners who might wish to elect to join the group after their initial six months in solitary. Another developed a welcoming and rapid indoctrination program for newcomers.
Another developed community-relations strategies and programs. There were hundreds of down-and-out people throughout the coal field. Anything looked better to them than their condition. They, of all things, were jealous of the apparent living style of these convicted criminals.There were a few raids made on The Orchard by small groups who were well intoxicated. This necessitated security, in an unexpected direction, for now there was a need for protection from society. The prisoners, in the fourth year, wrote a comprehensive plan and proposal to allow similar villages to be formed by any local volunteers who would contract, much as the prisoners, to become citizens of new communities similar to those of The Orchard project. The identical situations would prevail: austere, self-learning, self-creating, health oriented, humane communities.
At one time, there had been a lot of joking about the program being a chain gang, a work force, and a return to breaking rocks. Prisoners at first were hostile, but they were paid daily -- physically in cash - then encouraged to bank it. They also saw cadre working harder than they were. Soon it was clear this was not work punishment but that the message of the place was work is good. It was the means to resources and energy, to esteem (not the money gained but the work to gain it). They began to see opportunities for service and creativity. They had learned that every act on the mountain was restorative. They may never hear any thanks for that from the people elsewhere who may have clean water or their flood clean-up bill reduced. For them, every act to build a trail made their access easier. Every gardening act grew more food. Their goat herd grew. Every construction made life easier, or warmer in winter, or cooler in summer. "Meaningful work" was a slogan that appeared in a few places. "Not drudgery; diversity" also appeared along with "Human work for humans."
Increasingly, people began doing things that gave them greatest satisfaction. Everyone had to have done everything -- from arranging flowers and mounting butterflies to cleaning the stables and spreading the manures. That was their vocational education; few had ever had a role model; few had experience at more than two jobs; few could list ten things they might consider for employment. Within six months in The Orchard, each person had experienced over 100 different jobs.
There were 50 small enterprises associated with The Orchard projects. There were all levels of work, all levels into which people might find continual satisfaction or growth opportunities. The mix was continually changing, but that seemed a minor challenge for the cadre and community. By now, all had been instructed in creative processes using the superior units of the Didactron. Most of the major work was done with animals, wood, and stone. Everyone participated in these. The other work was in reshaping the land and building new homes and work spaces. It included reshaping soils above the stone walls, planting trees, cutting wood for fuel, making rail fences, spot-improving pasture, working on gullies. A giant area map showed where the work was in progress and named the workers: "Terrace completed May 6, 2003 by Mrs. A's Crew. " There was more success; more group feedback; conspicuous interaction and more shared responsibility. The entire area was changed into a series of terraces, some no more wide than 30 feet. They took unusual pride in the beauty of the walls, the colorful Toggenburg goats and their herders. The land came alive and productive with human care. The tenderness of people to animals and people to people within The Orchard was soon transferred to land. Citizens began to learn to program computers, some already knew. They developed programs that determined precisely the grass to plant, the amount of fertilizer to apply, and the number of days that each small area should be grazed.
"Some of the citizens lived in open barracks. They ate together in a dining hall. The families ate separately. There were monthly meetings of the entire group; most included a feast. Many were followed by contests; a play; a performance.
Daily schedules were fairly tightly structured among work, presentations, self-learning periods, evaluations, and skits or role-playing accompanied by discussions and school solutions. Along with the self-learning periods, those periods typically involved gaining knowledge and skills while serving as apprentices with the cadre, there was a health program. Within the system, bonuses were paid quarterly for health score maintenance or improvement. These were complex computer-calculated indices based on the original physical and health work ups. They reflected the diets, exercise, and even working conditions. A wound or broken bone resulting from a work accident occurring under unsafe conditions could reduce the score and the bonus. There was continual emphasis upon the balance between a fit, well-functioning body and an active learning mind.
Early in the program when there was "the wilderness," all had learned woodcraft, pioneering, and a variety of survival skills. These later became the bases for contests of a wide variety -- knot tying, rope splicing, fire starting, and log chopping. The diversity allowed almost everyone to be a champion in some area -- from great physical strength needed to lift rocks of various weights, to the great acumen needed to solve logistical problems of teams of workers with their equipment and how to get them across streams or ravines in the least time without endangering anyone or requiring undue amounts or risk in work by anyone person.
These games and contests accommodated some of the gambling tendencies in almost everyone and turned them to meaningful and useful actions. These were skills of a human scale and related to potential human purpose. Accuracy in rock throwing at a target had potential in acquiring food in an emergency or for defense (as compared to the survival-free talents of shooting a ball through a hoop). There were no basketball courts anywhere.
New games were invented, perfected and a few were published. The profits, like garden produce, became a part of the enterprise income. Each game's contribution to a health score was worked out. Soon, the muscle groups that each game would develop were learned and people 'took' a game as readily as a pill or other prescription to gain the monetary advantages of the health bonuses. The health bonuses, high at first, quickly controlled medical costs. Also, reducing medical costs was a life and hospital insurance payment rate associated with the computed health index. The insurance company with whom the policy was formed made money, so did the citizens, and a feedback loop enhanced personal concern, group safety and health, and cut operating costs in several ways -- all due to the vast, but individually small, sequential interactions.
Over the years, new areas were completed, usually ending up with a population of 500. Many citizens were family members who joined the prisoners. When ready, a new community was started. Each was on an adjacent abandoned mine site. Some were extensions to a larger area; others were several miles distant. Each had its name. Each had a unique design, usually computer determined to provide the lowest possible costs of building and operation over a planned 150 years. The planning was partially based on the near surety of fossil energy shortages -- and the social mind set that would surely say that energy for convicts is of very low priority. The other basis was merely moral. It is mete and right so to do; scarce resources should be used sparingly.
The cadre was expanded by the citizens who found personal success, realized they were needed perhaps for the first time in their lives, and had a few friends and at least a supportive community. The system was very dynamic, for there were new areas, new people, new challenges - new games. Each community became progressively self supporting. The 'profits' after the fourth community were used to expand the program. Except for maintenance costs which were low due to the initial construction, there were no expansions or add-ons allowed. The overall prisoner problem was far too great to allow any sub-unit to become 'fancy.' These were solid, moral, humane communities. They were special places to reduce an enormous social problem. Nothing would solve this problem. It would be a problem like preparing meals - always present, always costly and always requiring at least a little prior thought and for a quality existence, a lot of creativity. It was a problem of behavior -- manageable but unsolvable. The Didactron was a place for, a concept of, changing behavior cost-effectively.
Chance had argued before the governor:
The governor and others needed numbers and facts. Quantify they said. The last figure was the only one they really wanted.
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