I was teaching my second grade class on 9/11. Sometimes when you are teaching in an elementary school, you feel so removed from the “normal, adult” world. Normally I don’t mind it, but on this day I really did. Sometime around 10:00, a collegue walked into my classroom with a bright yellow paper. She said nothing to me, didn’t look at me, just handed me the paper as I was teaching and walked back out. The paper said something to the effect of “Two planes have struck the WTC in NY city. It looks like terrorists. Remain calm and know that parents may pull their kids out. We will meet to discuss after school.”
I remember just standing there trying to make sense of what this paper meant. It didn’t make any sense to me. How bad was it? I had no way to listen to a radio with all of these children, and couldn’t get to a T.V. I had to keep teaching. I couldn’t stay focused on what needed to be done. I just remember being shocked.

At lunch time, I took a little radio into the teacher’s lounge to try and get some news. I didn’t have high hopes on getting a lot of news, but to my shock, that was all there was on every station. Myself and the other teachers in the room listened silently.

But it wasn’t until I went home after work that I realized just what the ramifications were of what had happened. And I sat down and cried for the first time that day.