story4062.xml

story4062.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was teaching science to my 5th graders when a knock came at the classroom door. One of the secretaries told me about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center tower, but don't say anything to the children. A few moments later, she knocked again with the news about the second attack. It was impossible to believe, but even more impossible that I couldn't even let on that something horrible was happening in our nation. The last and final knock told of the Pentagon and the closing of the airports across the nation. It was too much to digest and still we couldn't let the students know due to the possibilty of family involved in the attacks. At lunch, our principal told the students of the terrorist attcks against our country. The teachers sat around the only radio and listened, in horror and silence, during the short lunch break. When we returned to our classroom, my fourth grade students had many questions and I just didn't have any answers. The one question that finally pushed me over the edge was, "...but I thought this kind of thing didn't happen in America. I thought we were safe." Oh, how I wish that child was right!