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Some Days It's No Fun At All

© Irene Taylor

I, like millions of people around the world, sat motionless watching the horror of Tuesday, September 11, play out on the TV. More like a movie, or a terrible collective nightmare, we all watched the unthinkable and unimaginable.

As we watched, I thought often of my friends and colleagues who I taught with for many years at the Irene E. Feldkirchner Elementary School in Green Brook, New Jersey. Green Brook is one of the many bedroom communities of New York City and many families have someone who works in the city. "What a day they must be having," was my first thought.

Retired now, I can look back on several world events that touched our lives while I taught, while I was actually there with the kids, teaching. They were hard days, indeed.

Perhaps the most vivid was the Challenger disaster. Thankfully, my class wasn't actually watching the launch, but that event chilled us all. It was a hard event to explain to first graders that day. And when I finally got home, I remember watching the TV coverage over and over and over - thinking each time that this time it wouldn't happen!

Ironically, on Tuesday morning shortly before the tragic events began to unfold in New York City, my husband Gary and I were talking about another event that held my students and me spellbound - the Gulf War. I had recently been contacted by a former student (she found me here at Suite 101 of all things!!) who was in my 5th grade class in 1991. She is now getting ready to be a student teacher and emailed to ask for some of my "teacher advice." Gary and I were talking about how that class was so riveted by the Gulf War, and how they came to school each day eager to discuss the events of the night before. There were many teachable moments during that time in our country's history. Thankfully none so tragic as these.

But what of the events on Tuesday? What burdens faced our teachers that day, and yesterday, and today? I've heard the experts giving advice for parents and teachers. I'm not an expert, but here is my own advice. It is how I taught during the tragedies we faced over the years and how I would teach if I faced a class of students tomorrow. Make them feel safe, but be honest. Kids need to know that the world stands on the brink of some hugely tough decisions. Make them feel proud of our country. And give them the sense that they are living through very historic days. Just as we may remember the Challenger accident, or the assassination of President Kennedy, and just as our parents and grandparents remember Pearl Harbor, our children will certainly remember this day and the days that follow for the rest of their lives.

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