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Friday, September 9, 2011

911 Ten years later -- first week of school

Sir Wilfrid Laurier parking lot

 Well, the first week of school is finished and It was fun but really tiring.

I have two lovely classes. Lovely so far. I expect it will continue, they seem like nice kids..

September 11 is on Sunday. This will be the 10th September 11 that I've spoken to my classes about that day. And each year less and less of the students actually remember September 11. This year, only two students had anything to say. This is no surprise, considering that the grade nines were four years old in 2001 and the great tens were five. However, they were all very attentive and polite and allowed me to once again recall where I was on September 11, 2001.

I'd only been back to teaching, after two years sabbatical, for about five days when September 11 crashed in on all of us. I was in a new school with new students -- I didn't know anyone. So, when a student opened my door and said, "Miss, there's something happening on the TV in the room across the hall", I felt very alone in my sudden responsibility.

Now, you have to understand that Sir Wilfrid Laurier high school in Orleans Ontario was, and still is, the most technologically advanced school in the Ottawa area. The "TV" was a projection of live CNN on a pulldown screen, the size of the opposite wall.



I brought all the kids in my class into that classroom and, together, we watched the second plane hit and we watched the towers collapse and we feared for a students uncle who worked at the Pentagon.

We thought World War III had started.

We had what they call a primary experience. Unlike other schools that only found out after, and other people who weren't tuned in to the news, we were traumatized because we lived it at the moment it was happening.

But, we also bonded. Everyone felt closer to each other and I think this actually helped the school be what it is today. I know it shaped me. It made me think about life and death and appreciation.

Take a moment to remember the 343 firefighters and policemen who lost their lives that day. As one survivor of 9/11 said, "I was walking down the stairs to my life and I passed the firemen walking up the stairs to their deaths."

I'd like you to think about your life and appreciate the gift that it is and how tenuously we all hold on. Give a hug to your mom or dad.

and never go to bed angry.

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