Realizations...
Back in September I worked with a group of 6th grade students...we worked on a 9-11 project. Each group found and cut out quotes from that time period. The students combined these quotes with their large painting of the American flag.
As the students worked away, of course I was thinking back to my senior year of high school and how MY life was changed having grown up in NY State...then a realization came over me. For the first time in my teaching career I was teaching students who were not born before the tragedy. It was an odd feeling. Not necessarily an "I'm feeling old" moment, but one that (other than with people too young to remember) made me feel like a connection was missing. We could not compare our experiences.
With that realization, the project was cast in a different light for me. "Never Forget" wasn't something applicable here, these students don't have memories of that day to forget. They have no way to compare and contrast life pre and post 9-11. Kids these days have to learn through our own experiences...I've been doing things in that context for years, but for some reason this experience was so monumental, life-changing, and personal that I was uniquely conscious of this fact.
Maybe that's a good thing.
Any time a teacher is forced to critically look at who, what, how, and why they are teaching something they grow. It’s just odd that after all these years 9-11 is still affecting me in large pushes, not the firm nudges we notice from most other events in our past.
Here are a couple shots of the project:
