Robert Martin and the Devereux Foundation part 1
Several months after graduating from West Chester University I went to a job fair at Devereux Foundation, a huge mental health organization with campuses all over the Philadelphia area. I was hired to work there as a Mobile Therapist. This means that instead of working in an office, I would be going to my client family’s homes and to visit the children in school.
Robert Martin was the only Black child in my caseload; I first met him in his school environment. It was that kind of situation where, upon observing a child, your stomach drops to the floor and inwardly you groan “…oh God no..” Robert was completely wild, did not follow classroom rules, broke other student’s and the school’s property, was always being sent to the principal’s office. When I met Robert I was sure he’d either end up dead by the time he was 20 or be out on the streets in a gang, stealing, buying and selling drugs, and probably killing. What could I have in my repertoire of counseling skills that could help this parent-less, angry, and very intelligent child?
Because that’s the first thing I saw in Robert–his intelligence. It was one of those situations where, if he lived through his teenage years, he’d be the head honcho of a gang. Sometimes I’d look at Robert and think that maybe that would be the best thing that could happen.
So I began going to Robert’s school and sat next to him while he sort of did his classwork.(He wasn’t in a main stream class; Robert had been placed in a “special class” of trouble-makers. Nobody knew what to do with him.) I asked him questions about himself and he answered me but he wasn’t hostile, which surprised me. We read together and he showed me things on a computer. I discovered that he was immensely interested in animals, especially lions living in Africa. We read together about wildlife becoming extinct which disturbed him. He wrote what was for him a huge undertaking–a short essay on “the poor lions.” It took me years of thought to realize that he identified with these magnificent beings. Even if I was aware of this fact while I was still with Robert, what could I have done? It plagued me and I did what I was told, over and over, by the people who trained me at Devereux never to do–I allowed Robert to become a part of me.
lgmwriting 