Saturday, September 11, 2010
Flickering, Fading Creativity
This week's prompt concerns 9/11...or at least that is how I read it. I find no creative juices with which to respond to the prompt. All I can do is relate where I was. Second grade class at Lookout Mountain Elementary School. Our kids were in gym class. I was grading papers, when One of our 4th grade teachers came into the room, hurriedly in fact, exclaiming that I needed to come to her class and see something on TV. I did. I was literally frozen in front of her TV, watching the flames from the first tower, when within minutes on live TV a plane veers into the second. Surreal was what I remember. We spent the remainder of the day in shock, trying to teach and trying to keep the kids from knowing...better to let their parents tell them. Very dark...too many unanswered questions...my guess is we will never know what really happened that day, and the many days leading up to that fateful morning...nor the many days that followed. It changed the world...Peace and blessings
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Yes it certainly did change the world...I too was in a classroom and will be forever grateful to the teachers (at other schools) who kept my children safe, and in the dark about what was going on around them until they were home with their dad and I.
ReplyDeleteI found it kind of hard to write about this as well. I can agree though most people went through shock and many emotions after.
ReplyDeleteI had a very hard time writing about this last year when called upon to write something in one of the memes I participated in at that time. I was new to blogging and made all kinds of spelling mistakes.
ReplyDeleteBut this time, I decided to keep my distance emotionally, and just treat it as an exercise in writing. Which is hard, because tears are not far away.
I don't know how people who have actually lost a loved one in this tragedy, cope with it.
Best wishes,
Anna
Anna's SC-Remembering 9/11
Creativity was out the window for me too, Jeff. Thanks for sharing your memories.
ReplyDeleteJeff it is one of those, where were you moments we all shared together. Thanks for your words. I was at work and it was near the Atlanta airport. When all air space was shut down we were outside just talking in stunned muted tones and we realized how quiet it was. The country stopped still for a moment!
ReplyDeleteI, too, wrote about where I was. I'm so glad I was no longer a teacher. I don't know how you guys kept going, but thanks for protecting the children from this news until their parents could deliver it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this was difficult to write a story about, and I enjoyed reading your true experience, which mirrored mine in many ways.
ReplyDeleteWe will never be the same, that's for certain.
I was in my classroom that morning, and at the time, I was a 5th grade teacher.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing the plane fly into the first tower, and the tower remaining upright, instead of falling down instantly and (stupidly) thought, 'Wow, it's amazing that didn't make it collapse,' thinking everything would be more or less okay. Of course, reality soon smacked me in the face.
Our class watched it for a while, transfixed, numb, paralyzed, for part of the day, with me just standing, watching. We were then told to turn off the TV's and try to do something that resembled school work and normalcy.
The discussions were impossibly difficult that day and the days that followed. How can you explain to kids (adults have trouble, too) that THEIR religion is just as dear to them as ours is? How can you convince young people that ALL people of a certain faith or from a particular part of the country are NOT evil?
It's still a hard sell...
Interesting post, Jeff! I can't imagine how you felt trying to insulate the children from the tragic news while inside feeling such emotional upheaval after viewing the cataclysmic terror of the WTC collapse.
ReplyDeleteGiven the trauma it caused young children in particular, such as nightmares and intense feelings of insecurity, I applaud your sensitivity in making sure their parents were the bearers of the sad news.
Thanks for sharing!
I almost didn't write at all. When I did I turned comments off, on, off, on. I couldn't relate where I was because that still tears me to pieces.
ReplyDeleteI'd always wondered how teachers handled this. Thanks for telling your story.
I can't imagine trying to work through that day. Trying to save face with such sweet young minds. It has been so interesting to read everyone's experience. And seeing how similar they are. We were all just having an ordinary day.
ReplyDeleteWe visited Ground Zero a few days before the found the last few remains of the people who died there. I wrote a little of that experience in my Crunch Hearts Blog.
ReplyDeleteI loved your description of your day. How wonderful, you are a teacher.
Jeff, I don't know if the recounting of this horror has been a curse or a blessing this week.
ReplyDeleteI loved your spare words.
You have so much wisdom.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.