nmah431.xml

nmah431.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-26

I am a high school history teacher in California and I found out on the radio on my way to work about the airplanes crashing. I remember thinking, what am I going to do for the kids? We are under attack, we need to keep them safe, I need to help them understand. All my lesson plans were now worthless.

When I got to school everyone was standing silently in front of TV's in their rooms. I saw the towers fall and started to cry as did other teachers. The students were dazed, they didn't understand how to handle this.

So we watched TV all day, every period. We switched from CNN to ABC to local channels. I went online and we saw the planes fly into the towers over and over. I had visited the WTC towers, I knew that up to 100,000 people could be in them, and that is how many I thought died. I spoke about Pearl Harbor and JFK's assasination and told them to remmber this day to tell their children. I spent the next two weeks teaching about Islam and Judiesm and Christanity and Israel and Palestine and Middle East Geography and the Japanese Internement camps and civil liberties. WHEW!

I feel it is my job to teach kids about media awareness, they were bombareded by images and stories and lies and governent responses that are hard to understand. We need to teach kids to be skeptical of what they see in the media, and use various sources. I trust the newspaper over the TV news anyday and a newsmagazine over a newspaper. OUr kids today are more TV and internet trusting. WE need to teach them that it takes time and research to find truth.

So many people willing to risk their lives for others. The image of those firefighters climbing the stairs, of people carrying peers downs stairs, the police and health workers ready to bear this catastrophe. As a teacher I was proud of the teachers who got their students to safety near the WTC. I also think we need to try to understand the philosophy of those 19 men willing to die for their beliefs and bring down thousands with them. People die from terrorist attacks almost everyday in this world but in the US we tend to ignore it. WE need to remember the good life we have here, the brave everyday heros who help out for no reason but kindness and honor.

Yes, I have a little flag in my car but I felt almost pressured into it. As if if I DIDN"T fly the flag I was unpatriotic. I copied an article about this phenomenon and had my class discuss it. Many of the boys got very angry and couldn't understand that flag waving could be seen this way. I had a neighbor at this time who was Palestinian and he had flags on every side of him and I'm sure he felt strange. Waving a flag doesn't make you more patriotic.
Have my feelings changed? I teach about the various flags we've had, the Star Spangled Banner etc. I think the thing that symbolizes America is free speech and the ability to disagree non-violently. We had a huge local problem with the city council forbade the flying of flags at our local farmers market as a political statement!! I think the flag can mean many things and most people don't scratch the surface.