Condemned To Freedom - Foreword

I met John DeFrank several years ago when I was working at the Pennsylvania Department of Education and was responsible for overseeing and administering six hundred Alternative Education Programs statewide. John was involved with setting up a new program at his school with an outside provider and wanted to ensure the best for the students. I had always respected his philosophy on how to help needy students. In his words they were “not bad kids, but hurting pups” and with guidance and supportive services, much like a mother with her pups, they could be nurtured and learn to be strong and self-sufficient. He believed in strong mental health and behavioral health care, with a large dose of character education, more than discipline and punishment. He was a champion for his students.

His book Condemned to Freedom exemplifies the good fight he has always fought and never tired of, yet within it bleeds perhaps a bit of the exasperation I know he feels at those in charge and of the status quo in education. The very special education laws that protect the weak and needy sometimes cover for the corrupt and immoral. Condemned to Freedom is a murder mystery but interwoven within these pages is John’s own ideology of personal responsibility and the mission we must all share in living as role models for our youth and for our own souls.

Although Condemned to Freedom is a work of fiction, the lessons of life are there for the reader to unfold as John has threaded them within the characters and their actions. His Freedom County represents all the small towns that are troubled by the changes that they see: disappearing moral standards, drugs, local corruption, and murder within their own communities.

I don’t believe that John feels he can erase all the evils of the world for these kids, but I do believe he would change the way we all deal with evil: by rising above it, and standing strong to our own convictions, whatever the consequences. Schools do not own the epidemic of violence, nor can they cure social-economic status or social injustice. What can be done is for each of us to commit to the morals and values we know to be true and just.

One of my favorite parts of the book is when “Doc” Randori, the counselor, talks about a parable written by Yuzan in the Budo Shoshinshu to explain what real honor means to him. In the parable, a man entrusted his neighbor with a hundred gold pieces for safekeeping before he left for on a journey. For security, no one, not even the man’s own family, was to know of this arrangement. On the journey, the man was killed. … Doc continues:

"Of course, it would’ve been dishonorable to keep the gold. But even in returning it to the man’s family, we can judge the neighbor’s personal level of honor. The lowest level would be to desire to keep the gold, but return it only out of fear of being caught. The next level would be to momentarily consider keeping it, but then realize that would be wrong and, feeling guilty, return it. The highest level of honor would be to return the gold without question or thought."

A few weeks ago, I took a “strength survey” for a leadership position, one of the questions dealt with stealing if there were no way you would be caught, and no one else would ever know. I hesitated for a moment. Years ago I would have answered very quickly but something in me has become weak. I thought of the great leaders of the past and present, and of those I know who would never think of doing such a thing, and of my parents who would be ashamed of me. Yet, the question said, “If there was no way you would be caught and no one else would even know.” That is where real character comes into play, doesn’t it? John’s book is about the level of honor in all of us.

Nancy A. Avolese, former Pennsylvania State Coordinator for Alternative Education and Founder of The Center for Innovation Education Solutions, LLC