Where were you on 9-11?

I was at Cordova High School, teaching Spanish 1. My 4th period class was arriving. This was my most difficult class to teach, or I should say to manage. The variety of colorful personalities combined with the complacency of youth. Just plain laziness in some cases. By the end of the year, these kids would grow on me.

I think back on that day and remember faces, but not names. Scary. I'm too young to forget names already. It's only been 5 years since I left CHS.

Anyway, I forget a lot of the names. I very clearly remember the students coming in and asking "Mrs. Tomas, have you head what happened in New York?"
"What?" I thought it was going to be a punchline for a stupid joke, anything to get me to put off the day's vocab quiz.
"Two planes just flew into the twin towers?"
Was this some kind of sick joke? "You've heard a rumor right? A threat?" I asked.
"No, really, turn on Channel One."
Ah, Channel One. It had been around since I was in high school. Since when did these kids start watching Channel One? Ok, some did. But most in this class ignored it. And besides, it wasn't our"time" to watch. That was for after lunch.

I turned on the tv. Not even these kids would make up a story like this. Sure enough, there they were. Images of buildings I had seen in person, smoldering. Replays of two airplanes purposefully crashing into the mirrored twin towers.

My brain started spinning. I thought of relatives who could potentially be anywhere near the towers... Uncle Alan... he was with Mom and Dad visiting Aunt Andrea and Uncle Gary in California. Grandpa? He lived in a suburb, but his companion Micki lived somewhere in Manhattan. Tom? (Now that I think of it, I believe Grandpa was in Big Bear for that trip, too.)
I didn't believe it. The thought was absurd.

I remember facing a dilemna. As I said earlier, this class was my most difficult class to manage. It was only my 2nd year of teaching, and obviously I had not experienced anything like this during my own years as a student. I chose to try to maintain a sense of normalcy. Yes, the quiz would go on. (I dropped the lowest quiz grade each marking period, I figured that would help.) Plus, this was the class in which over 50% just didn't study. There was no bell curve, they were one extreme or the other. I knew that the kids who had studied would be ok, those who hadn't wanted to blame failing yet another quiz on something anyway.

I gave the kids time to review and pull their thoughts together. I had to pull my thoughts together. I did choose to ditch the lesson plan, except for the quiz. After the quiz, I turned the tv back on. History was happening. America had been attacked. Our illusion of security had been shattered. On September 11, 2001 I saw kids become adults in a certain way. I couldn't come out and directly tell each one of them how I hoped this would make them grow up. I don't think any of us could completely understand. But the funny thing was, I did not need to tell these kids to grow up. For once, these "traviesos" were not up to anything, they were vulnerable. Their facade of teenage immortality had been shattered. Their faces reflected the confusion and shock that the rest of the nation shared.

I vaguely remember the principal making some sort of announcement that we should try to continue and utilize all educational time as usual. But this day was not "class as usual". These were not elementary students whose parents should be the ones to explain what happened. So for me and my students, other than the quiz, it was a day for us to be a part of history. We watched the news in horror and sadness. Even though there is officially no prayer in public schools, I am sure I wasn't the only one praying for the families of those who perished.

Tomorrow, on the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on America, I wonder what my former students will remember about that day....