- How will you honor 9/11 tomorrow?
- How do you think people will commemorate it 10 years from now?
I gave the students their normal 7-10 minutes for quiet, individual reflection, then asked them to share some of their opinions. This was the first warm-up of the year that I asked them to share about, so I was a little bit nervous about what would happen. However, the results were wonderful.
As numerous hands shot into the air and a few students let out a reference to the plans for building a mosque at Ground Zero, I realized I had tuned into a heated moment for many of my seniors. Therefore, I took the moment to remind them to think carefully about the words they chose, and to consider that there may be other opinions than their own in our classroom.
From that point forward, about ten different students shared their personal opinions about 9/11, the memories it brought to them, their thoughts on the future, and their stance on the building of a mosque, and our goals as a nation overall. I stood back from them, truly inspired. I did my best, as always, to simply encourage instead of sharing my own opinion- I am constantly doing my best not to "taint" their own reflections with forced opinions of my own. I did, however, add at the very end that one student's plan to contact his brother who is currently stationed in Afghanistan was a great thing to do, and inspired me to make a note to contact my bro-in-law who is also there. (I did, indeed, write him a thank you e-mail yesterday.)
I am blessed to teach seniors this year, especially since I have gotten to know many of them prior to this class. It's important to remember that teenagers really are pretty neat people.
