Like Rain on Parked Cars, Chapter 11 – The Road Out

Shofuso Japanese House and Garden, Philadelphia, PA, Author 松風荘 (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

“Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God…” (Ps. 143: 10).

“May education and learning be central to their lives and work, and move them forward to lives of personal and academic fulfillment.”

–Rae Alexander-Minter, EdD, at the dedication of Penn Alexander School

A new grammar school has been built in West Philadelphia since Aretha’s day.  Named for African American lawyer and civil rights pioneer, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, the $19 million building perches like a great white bird amid the rubble of its surroundings.

Regrettably, the school was built too late for Aretha.  She spent her last matriculated year at West Philadelphia High School, without text books the entire time.

Situated at 48^th Street and Locust Avenue, West Philadelphia High School is overwhelmingly African American with approximately 86% of its over 1700 pupils from low-income families.  The school when last reported had two guidance counselors, fewer than ten teacher’s aides.  Some 30% of students are absent on any given day.

Truancy

In Philadelphia as a whole, there are over 12,000 children truant on any given day.  Single mothers battle the streets for their children’s souls.

Though young people are required to attend school through age 17, truancy officers in West Philadelphia rarely stop those on the street during school hours.  Perhaps the volume is overwhelming.  Either that or the lives of these children are already viewed as expendable.

West Philadelphia High School, in fact, boasts an Electric Vehicle Team which builds functional and award winning hybrid electric cars getting 50-60 miles per gallon.  But verbal and math college board test scores have averaged 600, out of a possible 1600.  The dropout rate has been as high as 18%.

In 2006, there were 74 incidents at the school characterized as “serious” (89 incidents, the last year Aretha attended there).  These included disorderly conduct, drug and alcohol offenses, altercations between students, vandalism, weapons charges, thefts, and assaults on teachers.  One teacher had his jaw broken.

It is not unusual for arson fires to be set in student lockers, further disrupting classroom time.

Maternity

Once beyond the first trimester of her pregnancy, Aretha was transferred to a maternity home in Bala Cynwyd, then to a second such home – this one in a rehabilitated brownstone in North Philadelphia – for delivery, and immediate post-partum care.

These were small group homes, located in what had once been private houses.  For the most part, the staff treated Aretha with warmth and concern.  She received prenatal care, was instructed in nutrition and child care, and continued her high school classes on-site.

I marveled at this efficiency, was amazed at the resources placed at Aretha’s disposal.

A Fateful Decision

During this time, Aretha was approached by a respected college in the area, interested in diversifying its student body.  She turned the offer down, sure that there would be others more to her liking.  My heart lurched in my chest when she told me.  I was far from as certain.

Graduation

Aretha meanwhile prepared for graduation.  We went shopping together for a nursing bra and a dress she could wear under her gown.  I kept seeing the two images of her – girl and woman – superimposed on one another, like photos imperfectly developed.

Aretha’s mother, her sister Shantice, Tyrell, and I attended graduation together.  On the way, Aretha’s mother remarked, “I coulda gone on wid college, too.  But I woulda lost my benefits.”  She had made the decision to curtail her own future, in favor of continuing on public assistance.

I cannot speak to the reasons Aretha’s mother became an addict.  Whether her addiction was the result of youthful indiscretion or despair, I cannot say.  The difficulties she faced, I will never fully know.

But that statement betrayed an attitude toward education that was fundamentally different than the attitude with which I was raised.  In my immigrant family, education was valued.  Education was the road up and out, and work the engine.

From what she many times told me, Aretha was surrounded by family, friends, and acquaintances who viewed education much as her mother did.  Her older brother did complete two years of college.  For the most part, however, Aretha was actively discouraged from advanced studies.

Some of this was an attempt to protect Aretha from disappointment, from doors closed to her.  Some of it was jealousy or, at any rate, the mistaken sense that Aretha’s success would be the equivalent of abandonment.

Aretha had to struggle constantly, so as not to be swept along by this tide.  Her life decisions were, without question, influenced by it.  No family member said about her college offer, “It sounds solid.  You won’t get another one so easily.  Take it.”  No one said, “You can do this.”

If their dreams had been thwarted, why should hers be any different?

…

There is an authentic pagoda in Fairmount Park.  The stone pagoda (which features a wooden bridge, formal garden, and koi-filled pond) was disassembled in Japan and reassembled, piece by piece, in America.  Visitors are required to exchange their shoes for paper slippers, so as not to damage the delicate reed mats covering the floors.

Aretha and I toured the tranquil setting together, within earshot of the rest of West Philadelphia, but our thoughts a thousand miles away.  Aretha had not known of the pagoda’s existence.

Now no longer at a school that taught Japanese (let alone offered an exchange program), Aretha was acutely aware of what she had left behind.  She said little, as we examined the spare Japanese furnishings.

I had difficulty reconciling the lovely surroundings with a mystery recently solved, not three miles away.  A chronic leak had developed at our West Philadelphia legal clinic, despite a newly installed roof.  Water would occasionally accumulate on the floor of the room where we met clients.

We attorneys jokingly asked the pastor whether he wanted to bring suit.  The contractor was contacted, but stood by his work.  An inspection of the roof revealed a number of small holes…a result of gunfire from the streets nearby.

Descending, the bullets retained enough velocity to damage the roof.

This is the environment in which the children of West Philadelphia spend eighteen of every twenty-four hours, the environment six hours of school must offset.

Copyright © 2010 – Present Anna Waldherr.  All rights reserved.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com