Tamara Cerbo
Hedgepeth/Williams Sixth Grade Cooperative Teacher
It was a very difficult thing for me to go through and witness. I couldn’t believe what my ears had just been told, “When I’m bad, like I was last night, my aunt makes me put my hands above my head [like this], and stand with my feet in this position for hours; last night it was for three,” and what my eyes had to watch as the girl stood there with her hands awkwardly positioned above her head in a twisted fashion and her feet crossed over each other. Words couldn’t describe the way she must have felt after having been forced to hold this position for so long, by her own family member, by the figure that stood in for her own absent mother.
This was a sixth grade student from Hedgepeth / Williams Middle School where I interned this fall 2005 semester. It was not an easy task for me to deal with all that this inner city Trenton school dished out; disruptive, disrespectful behavior from almost every student at one time or another. I was having a grueling enough time trying to design lesson plans for the students, I had never fathomed discipline and just coping with the day’s issues would have been the main focus of my worries and anxieties.
Women’s issues do not start when girls become women; rape, abuse, discrimination, abortion, depression, health care, subjection, along with all the tragic rest, do not begin only after a girl becomes a woman. They start from birth when parents picture their little girl as a teacher and plan her marriage to a lawyer from a very successful law firm. They begin the instant a little girl is sexually abused by an older man who her parents’ have entrusted her to spend the afternoon with. Sixth grade girls are dealing with some serious issues that they should not have to at such an early age. Violence, rape, abuse and molestation should not be concerns of a sixth grader; hell, they shouldn’t be concerns of anyone.
Sixth grade girls are at the stage where they are beginning to grow up. At Hedgepeth / Williams, however, they were subjected to more than the average girl went through by not only just beginning to get their periods, become interested in boys, and deal with acne; in this neighborhood, some of these young girls were expected to hold jobs, while others dealt with abuse from home or new boyfriends. This was such a different world than the one I had grown up in. By no means was my adolescence all that pleasant, but at least I didn’t have to cope with all the additional issues females growing up in this neighborhood had.
As she hobbled down the stairs to the nurse’s office, I wondered how much children went through that teachers at Hedgepeth / Willams would never know about. What other abuse or inequity did these girls face that never was spoken of? The thoughts upset me. They left me searching for answers I would not be able to find. Many teachers at Hedgepeth appeared to know the extent of abuse – but felt limited in their abilities to help. I could foresee my eventual frustration and disgust with the entire situation too. But I could never envision giving up on a child the way some of these teachers had. They removed themselves from the situation. Some seemed to have become numb to any child’s situation in order to hinder their own pain.
Through a simple internship, one never knows what s/he may come across. I was shown a different side of life – one of a less fortunate sect of the population, one I had never experienced and had only heard tales of before. If treated properly, these internships can be gems; precious clues that glimpse into our potential lives if we so choose to follow them in our futures; or warnings, signaling an error in our choice for our future paths. When interning, take every opportunity possible to chat with employees, go to work-related functions, learn the inside-outs of the business, corporation or school you are interning at; each is a unique opportunity that one should seek to gain the complete experience an internship can provide.