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September 11, 2001—A teacher’s view As the horrific events of September 11 unfolded on live television, teachers and students alike were caught up in a chaotic swirl of emotion, facts and unbelievable images - all of which required some sort of immediate response. It happened during school hours and the teachers of Farmingdale were the first to provide some comprehension of these events to the stunned students. Many of us were equally stunned. And as adults, many of us knew quickly what would only become gradually clear to some of our children: some fathers and mothers were not coming home. For both students and teachers, uncles, aunts, friends, neighbors - estimates are between 12 and 30 Farmingdale residents - are among the missing. Many of our teachers are personally grieving as we attempt to help our students as they struggle with understanding and coming to grips with lives that have been drastically changed. As teachers, our primary focus in the initial period after the attacks was to be as supportive and considerate as possible for those most directly affected and for those who were traumatized by those terrible events. Not much traditional teaching was going on for a few days, but a lot of learning was taking place. Students and teachers learned a great deal about their own strengths and the compassion and empathy of others. When a community goes through traumatic events like those, a special bond, a closeness, is created that in many cases will last a lifetime. As time passes and the shock of the events begins to recede, teachers will begin to draw lessons from the events: What will the future hold? How did the actions in the past lead up to these actions? What will a "war" on terrorism be like? Will the draft be brought back? What will be the impact on our economy? Will schools be targets in the future? What do we need to do as a school community to improve security and assure that every student feels safe and secure in a learning environment? Those are some of the obvious academic lessons. But we must also address some equally important issues: How can be help those who have lost a loved one cope? What are the signs of stress we need to be looking for? How should we handle a student who "acts out" in the weeks or months after a loss? When do we need to be understanding about a missed assignment and when do we need to press for a return to regular classroom routine? There are no easy answers to any of those questions, academic or non-academic. But our students and our community expect us to lead the search. That’s what teachers do. Although in many cases we will be doing it with heavy hearts, we don’t let our students or our community down in this time of need. There’s too much at stake. The writer is President of the Farmingdale Federation of Teachers
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