Do you remember where you were when
America
was changed?
I was teaching in my second grade classroom. We had just switched students for reading groups. I had the low group; they're my favorite. We were sitting together on the rug reading the morning message and buzzing about words that ended with -at or something. Deep stuff for 7-year-olds learning to decode English.
Knock at the door. Mrs. Cabanis comes in. Mrs. Richert, will you please come here a moment?
I walk into the hallway, leaving the door open so I can hear my class in case anybody decides to make a break for it. I notice the other second grade teachers standing by their doors, too. My wheels start turning. Tornado drill today? Important staff meeting this afternoon? Did somebody write on the boy's bathroom wall again?
Mrs. Cabanis: There's been an accident. A plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. They thought it was just an accident. But then another plane crashed into the south tower. And just now the Pentagon. We don't know anything more. But we wanted you to know. Now, the district wants us to not tell the students. We just wanted the staff to know. We'll have a TV in the lounge so we can see what's going on.
It hit me then. Mrs. Cabanis is on the crisis team. What in the world is happening???
More than a little bewildered I eased back into my classroom and gathered my group back on the carpet. We searched for more -at words, put some periods in the right spots on my letter to the class, and then broke up for reading groups. I saw every group that day. It was a good reading day.
By lunch time I had tucked Mrs. Cabanis' message into the back of my mind. I dropped my kids off at the cafeteria and made my way across the hall to the lounge. The room was silent, save Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric. Cool, I had always loved Katie. But as I settled into my spot at the table, I could tell this wasn't the Cute Katie Show. The mood was somber. The art teacher was in tears. In the time it takes to open a lunch box, we all realized the magnitude of the news we'd received 2 hours earlier.
By the time we left the room two hours later, we were all crying. Most of us had children of our own, and we were thinking of them. We wanted to be with our families. Not here. But we had other people's children to take care of. And the district office didn't want us to tell the elementary school kids what had happened. That would be up to the parents. So we put on our happy face, picked our kids up from the cafeteria, and continued on with our day, hunky-dory like.
That's what I remember most about that day. It was surreal, knowing that somebody hated us so badly that they would kill 2,974 people they'd never even met. And I had to go on about my afternoon in a suburban elementary school pretending that the world was safe, friendly, willing to bend over backwards for every Nintendo-loving, Pokemon card-trading 7-year-old on God's green earth. My job wasn't merely to teach these kids to read, write, and say "sorry" when they hurt a friend. I had to assure them that our world was filled with wonder, beauty, kindness, and love.
That's still my job. Some days are easier than others. But no day has been more difficult than Sept. 11, 2001.
Thanks be to God for pulling us through the most evil day I've ever seen.
9.11 was a hard day for me. I was going to do the United Way Day for my company. I called the speaker that was coming and she explained me about what happened. I was the firstperson in my office that knew. As I went around and spread the news, we turned on the tv and found ourselves holding each other to try and understand what had happened. In some ways, we still don't know what happened.
ReplyDeleteI was on my way to work and heard the announcer on the radio say something about a plane crashing into a building in New York. Being in the school parking lot, I got out of the car not really paying that much attention to what I had heard. When I got inside, all my co workers were gathered around the tv in the office and I with the rest of them watched in horror. All I wanted was to hear my families voices, make sure my daughters and sons-in-law, my grandson, my husband and Mom were OK. It was a terrible, unbelievable time. I remember thinking how I wished Wendi, Curt and Camden and Brian and Michelle were here. I think that was the wish everyone had that day, just to have their families close.
ReplyDeleteI remember that being a day that you just wanted to call your family and friends. Zack had preschool that afternoon and I still can't believe we walked him up the street to the YWCA and dropped him off for preschool. We still weren't sure if the attacks were over yet. We watched the news channels for weeks. It still makes me upset that our lives,security,and freedom were threatened that day. I was also proud of our country that day and in the days following.
ReplyDeleteYou and I must think alike - I blogged about September 11 too. I'm sorry that we had that date to blog about....
ReplyDeleteI was teaching in Mt. Lebanon that day. I didn't have a class I was responsible for so I was able to watch a lot of the coverage live. I remember hearing about a guy that CTP graduated with who was working across the street from the towers. His family couldn't reach him for hours because he had to walk home because all of the bridges were closed. He spoke of being covered in soot and the horrificness of people running in all directions. I couldn't make myself watch any of the specials last night since I'm 'home alone.' But I remember the day as clear as can be.
ReplyDeleteThe strangest thing for me is that, a few years earlier, I was standing on top of one of the towers with a group of eighth grade students. We used to go to NY City for a field trip every year. To remember that I had once been on top of one of those buildings still gives me chills.