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September 11th opened my eyes to the fragility and randomness of life. At the time, my son was one year old, and the events made me deeply think about how America would never be the same. My children do not know of a time prior to heightened security, war in the Middle East, and crushing debt. Perhaps someday their generation will be able to solve these problems that they were burdened with.

I was starting a job in a brand new high school in Northern Virginia. I was team teaching in a room that had not yet had cable TV or internet service hooked up yet. In the middle of our morning lesson, the principal came over the PA system, and made vague remarks about how today was a tragic moment that we would remember for the rest of our lives.

He did not give any specific details, which made the class (and us) even more anxious and confused. After a short while, I went to an adjoining classroom, and was informed of what occurred. I shared the information with our students, but not of us could yet appreciate the enormity of the situation without yet having a visual reference.

Some of the other classrooms were hooked up to cable, so for the rest of the day, my classes would watch and discuss the events as they unfolded. As could be imagined, in such a confusing and terrifying time, parents were signing children out of school en masse. I kept thinking about my own one year old son who was in day care. How was he doing? I so much wanted to be with him and my wife at the time.

Our school was a fifteen minute drive to Dulles Airport, so there was a great deal of additional anxiety and confusion. Were the terrorists still near by? What might they do next? How would we know?

The other memorable event of the day was how different teachers handled the news. Many took the events as a once in a lifetime learning opportunity. They watched the news, had conversations with students, and shared their thoughts, hopes and fears. Conversely, a few teachers chose to continue teaching class as if nothing happened. As if trigonometry somehow took priority over our safety and security.

In retrospect, I am no longer as critical of these teachers. September 11th was a day of information overload. A great deal of that information was either inaccurate or downright false. Perhaps these individuals felt that there would be time to process the events in due time. Normality and routine helped some to cope with this horrible loss.