I‘ve always been a fan of judges who use creative sentencing in punishing the guilty, but this strikes me as misguided:
Call it poetic justice: More than two dozen young people who broke into Robert Frost’s former home for a beer party and trashed the place are being required to take classes in his poetry as part of their punishment. Using “The Road Not Taken” and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways — and the redemptive power of poetry. “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,” said prosecutor John Quinn. … Parini, 60, a Middlebury College professor who has stayed at the house before, was eager to oblige when Quinn asked him to teach the classes. He donated his time for the two sessions.
Doesn’t this send the wrong message to troubled youth? That poetry is punishment, that Middlebury is prison? If deterring future trespass were the ultimate end, perhaps we’d be better off teaching Hayek than Frost.
