In the fall of 2022, Professor Mary Pattillo taught a course for Cohort 1 at Stateville on qualitative research methods, and each student was required to write an interview guide. One student, Tony Triplett, wrote a guide to interview Pattillo, to which she happily obliged.
In her responses to Triplett’s questions — found below — Pattillo speaks about why she got into teaching, how she landed at Northwestern, and the moments when NPEP has had a transformative impact not only on her students’ lives but on her own.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
When I went to college, I wanted to be a teacher. I was thinking of being a high school teacher. But my university didn’t have a teacher training program. I was doing well in a sociology class and my professor asked if I had thought about getting a Ph.D. in sociology. I had not, but he convinced me. I don’t think I really understood what getting a Ph.D. would lead to. It probably wasn’t until I entered graduate school that I realized I would become a college professor, which all circled back to wanting to be a teacher anyway.
My mother was also a teacher. She taught college but she also taught the advanced math class at my elementary school. She stopped doing that by the time I got to the grades she taught (7th and 8th), but I remember her grading student homework at night. So, I’m sure that got me thinking of being a teacher.
Professor Mary Pattillo (left) and Cohort 1 Student Craig Harvey (right). Pattillo is the Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Northwestern University.
I came to teach at Northwestern because that’s who gave me a job. In college teaching, you don’t choose where to teach, the schools choose you. I was lucky that Northwestern chose me. The process is that you apply to many jobs and the schools decide who they want to hire. I was very happy because I love Chicago and wanted to be close to my mother in Milwaukee. And at that time, I was engaged and my fiancé wanted to live in Chicago.
Before NPEP, I’d always been in favor of higher education in prisons even though I hadn’t taught a class before. Knowing people close to me who have been incarcerated made it clear that there are brilliant people in prison and they deserve to use their brains like anyone else.
The pros of teaching at Stateville are how prepared the students are and how easy it is to spark class discussion. I also like teaching students who have had a lot of life experiences. The cons of teaching at Stateville are the fact that at the end of every class, students have to stay and I get to go. That’s the tough part. I would say to potential professors that teaching in NPEP is tough but well worth it, mostly because of the eagerness and openness of the students and for the new and sometimes surprising perspectives they bring to the material we teach.
When I first started teaching at Stateville, my class syllabus was the same for Evanston as it was for Stateville. I just stayed mindful of the resources that my Stateville students would have, so I basically designed the course to be just reading texts and discussion. The course was part of the “first-year seminar” curriculum at Evanston, which also worked at Stateville since the incoming cohort was also in the fall of their first year.
When I brought the Evanston students to Stateville for a joint class, I had to make sure all the Evanston students followed the rules of not bringing in things that were prohibited, that they dressed appropriately, and that they brought their IDs. One student was a football player and thought he wouldn’t be able to get out of practice, but he made it work. I actually think he was the most impacted by the visit (he wrote me a letter when he was a senior about that visit).
What I’m most glad about is that I had a good plan for the class, including a number of icebreaker activities and then a discussion of a very good book, “Ghosts in the Schoolyard.” I really remember the two icebreakers.
One was, “What did you have for breakfast this morning?” The Stateville students talked about how early breakfast was and what they dreamed about eating. And that the Evanston students had pretty much grabbed whatever they could.
Tony Triplett is an NPEP Cohort 1 student. In 2023, he will receive his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University.
And then the other was, “What was some historical event or music in the year you were born?” This really played up the age differences between the two cohorts. The Evanston students were the ages of some of the Stateville students’ kids. But it was a lot of fun.
Then we discussed the book. What I remember most is the Evanston students being quiet again and Cohort 1 Student Craig Harvey saying, “Okay, you all are going to have to step up — we can’t carry the class!” I was so glad that I didn’t have to say that but that a fellow student said it. It all felt really good. The Stateville students were really welcoming and helped the Evanston students come out of their shells.
I teach at Stateville for a lot of reasons but also because the Bible tells me to. It’s something I told your class in 2019 and I still find it true today.
I am actually not a very religious person. I was raised Catholic and I believe in God. But I’m open to God in all kinds of manifestations and through various religions. And there are some basic lessons in the Bible that strike me as aligning with the Goodness of God.
In Matthew 25, for instance, we learn what Goodness can look like:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Whenever I tell someone I’m teaching at Stateville, they always say something like how great it is that I’m doing it and how lucky the students are that I’m doing it. In fact, just the other day someone wrote me, “Thank you for the amazing things that you do for others, you are truly a blessing to many!”
I appreciate these comments, don’t get me wrong. But I think it’s important for you students to know that I have some selfish motives. You all are some of the best students ever and if I want to practice my vocation, then this is one of the best places to do it.