Stephen M. Joseph

The March for our lives on March 24, 2018 brought to our attention to the ability and insight of children. The march was organized by survivors of the school massacre in Parkland, Florida, following several other school massacres in recent years. The Parkland students decide it was time to fight back and gain support for laws to protect their lives.
The March and the activities leading up to it reminded me of a previous effort to give voice to children and their concerns. That was the publication of the book THE ME NOBODY KNOWS: CHILDREN’S VOICES FROM THE GHETTO published in 1969 and turned into an award-winning Broadway musical in 1970.
Teachers in New York area slums and ghettos asked their students to write about their lives. Topics focused on how they saw themselves, their neighborhood, the world outside, things they can't see or touch. The teachers often had the children write about a specific topic, something they knew very well: their world. In most cases, the children had an option to turn the work in without their names, put their names on them, discuss them with their teacher, or write them without turning them in. Often the papers were not graded or corrected. There are grammatical and spelling errors. Some teachers allowed the students to get their help for spelling. The purpose was for children to think about their lives and world and put their thoughts on paper.
Both the book is in the children's words and the play taken from that book were very moving. In many cases, things have not changed since then.
Children write about parents, being black, loneliness, neighborhood problems (e.g., noise, dirt, fighting, gun fire), death, school, and sex. They long for peace and family and love.
Thirteen- year-old Victor Y. wrote "When I first get up in the morning I feel fresh and it seems like it would be a good day to me. But after I get to school, things change and they seem to turn into problems for me. And by the end of the day I don't even feel like I'm young. I feel tired."
Sixteen year-old MB' s poem is called, "SUN" it goes

“When children see you in the summer,
Sun-
they like you.
They swim, laugh, and play,
Sun-
under your warmth.
But in the winter,
sun-
they lose their affection for you.
You melt the snow
sun-
they dislike you.
But why
sun-
must I always have winter?

Arthur Jackson, age 14, wrote: “I have felt lonely, forgoten or even left out, set apart from the rest of the world. I never wanted out. If anything, I wanted in.” Later in the book is his observation: “Sleep is a dark dimension with an automatic movie projector which cuts itself off and on by a subconscious switch.”
Fourteen-year-old V.B. questions “For what purpose was I born?...For what reason am I living?...But these are thoughts I must not think if I am to survive.”
N.T., a fourteen year old girl, wrote
“Snowflakes fall with grace
And cover the city’s dirt.
Why do you leave soon?”
G.P. (16) enumerates all the jobs that would be lost if there was no crime. His conclusion is that “all criminals should be treated with consideration, due, to their advancement of industry.”
Harlem Junior High School teacher Susan Rosen’s students told what they would do if they had a million dollars.
Robert M., age 14, had been labeled “retarded.” After reading his story “Otis and the Doughnuts,” one can easily question how easily children’s talents and abilities are overlooked.
I wonder what happened to the children whose words created the book.
THE ME NOBODY KNOWS: CHILDREN’S VOICES FROM THE GHETTO is a wake -up call. Seeing the world through the eyes of a child should make us think about the world in which children must live (so much of it has changed since 1969 partly because of television, the internet, and increasing gun violence). Luckily, there are children like those from Parkland who are ready to make necessary changes.… (mer)