nmah4157.xml

nmah4157.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I teach second grade at an Arlinton,VA elemantary school. We are located in south Arlington about 5 or 6 miles from the Pentagon. When the attacks ocurred in NY, we, at the school, were teaching so we were unaware of the tragedy. An itinerant teacher came into my classroom and said" we have been bombed" I thought that this was the end because I thought 'WW3'immediately. As teachers,it is very important that when something happens that will upset the students, teachers try to maintain a feeling of calm and normalcy so that children will not get upset. So, of course, I kept right on teaching. Then outside my classroom window I saw parents rushing to the front door of the building. Many of our parents are here from the Middle East and have not been here very long. Most are not yet citizens of the US.
By this time we were made aware of the situation. My first thought was that those poor parents having come from so much chaos in their own countries must be much more fearful than I could ever fathom. All of the teachers stayed until all of the students were picked up or taken home on the school bus.There was no school the next day but on the eleventh when the children returned we were urged to have discussions with the children about what they wanted to talk about. With the second graders we were also urged to let them draw pictures about what they knew about the tragedy. Students drew very realistic pictures of the Twin Towers, the Pentagon. and the airplanes. Children tried, in their innocence, to make sense of the tragedy. One of the questions asked was"why are they mad at us"? One child asked "did we do that to them first"?
And,ofcourse, the question I dreaded, "will they fly a plane into this school"?
We had lots of discussion that first day back and I felt so helpless because I could not make it all better for them.

I truly appreciate life and I live for today and not for tomorrow.

We have to remember that life is very precious.

I have always had a love and a patriotic attitude for the USA. I do not fly a flag at home but I do take the Pledge of Allegience very seriously in the classroom and often discuss with my students how fortunate we are to live in America.