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The Great British Book Club

The Prison Education Project (PEP) is all about breaking down barriers to education and creating more opportunities to learn. Learning occurs through many forms and in many settings, not just from lectures in a traditional classroom. Some of the best learning happens through dialogue and discussion with others and book clubs have long been known for creating an environment conducive to this end.This Fall semester, PEP is introducing a new book club called The Great British Book Club led by Victoria Thomas.

According to Thomas, the goal of this book club is to provide a stress free environment where students can enjoy reading literature from some of the great British writers without having to stress about writing a paper or taking a test. During the course of the semester, students will read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen and Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Students will have one month in between discussion sessions which allows ample time to read even the more lengthy novels.

 

I wanted to give my students an opportunity to experience some of the greatest writers in English in a community environment that encourages reading for the sheer joy of it.”

 

Being British herself, Thomas hopes that she can share some of the culture and literature from her life to her Missouri students. At the same time, Thomas believes that reading more can have positive effects for her students. Reading more can help students understand how great writers get their messages across and will in turn, help them to be better writers themselves.

 

“The best way to become a good writer is to read, read, and read some more.”

 

Another great benefit of this book club is that it will allow students from different years to come together and participate in discussions that may be hard to come by with their busy work schedules.

 

“I hope to encourage all the students to see that understanding these literary references is a reward unto itself, is personally relevant to them, and that no text is too difficult for them.”

 

Victoria Thomas is the regular instructor for the Freshman Critical & Researched Writing class at MECC and also for the intensive writing class, Argumentation.

The book club, comprised of 10 students, will hold its first discussion group on Friday, October 11th at 9am.

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