April 6, 2015 - 17:06
It is the end of our work session with the 7th grade, the class has been challenging but productive. The students have collected their things and moved on to the next class. The three of us (students) are talking to Mrs Harris, the classroom teacher about our work today and which students surprised up by their great work. Aliyah*, one of the cheeriest and most students in the class, comes back to collect something she has forgotten. She get it and gives us a joyful “bye” as she leaves. Katie* commented that she had had such a good time working with Aliyah that day. Mrs Harris echos that she is joy to have in the class. Then she says: “You know, they beat her up last week?” We are all silent. “What? Who” we ask, confused. Mrs. Harris gives the names of three other girls in the class, who we also work with, and are also generally excited and friendly. Mrs. Harris’s tone suggests no surprise at this. Last week, when Mrs. Harris was called away for jury duty, the three girls beat up Aliyah in the maths class. “They had her against the wall. They pulled pieces of her hair out.” This was totally shocking to me, firstly because I had thought that they were friends, or at least peaceful classmates and had seen them interact, and could not imagine them hitting each other. Today, and they had been collaborating as well as any other week we had been there. Aliyah seemed fine today, which should not be a testament to the resilience of urban kids. Secondly, that it happened during a class where there is meant to be a teacher leading and supervising the kids was shocking to me. When I asked Mrs Harris why they had done it, she answered, as if it were obvious, “because they can.” I don’t believe this is the real reason, but it did makes me humble and conscious about the small percentage of time we get to spent with the kids versus the full scope of their lives. At least the heat was not on so unbearably high today, and, because the weather has started to warm up, the kids got to go outside for recess.