impromptou 9/11 lesson and tinker toy “incident”

Was I ready to teach children today, after my very weird and not-that-fun weekend? NO. But apparently that is my job. So. The morning went well, my deep fondness for my students swelled in my chest. La la la, life is great.
Until. It was time for Number Corner. We were looking at the calendar and a little boy said, “this is the day the planes crashed into the towers.” To which I (mentally) replied, “Fuck.” Because what am I supposed to say to 1st graders on the 5th day of school about terrorism, war, our government and homeland security? I was planning on avoiding this anniversary altogether, letting families decide how to deal with it with their kids. But then the topic was raised and kids were alarmed, and I worried that if I didn’t lead a discussion they would just talk about it out on the playground and you know how that goes. Next thing you know there’s no Santa Claus or whatever. So I just went for it. I said that the anniversary of 9/11 is an important day for a lot of people. That they were literal babies when the planes hit, but that every grownup remembers where they were and how they felt when they learned what happened. I tried to emphasize the (fleeting) feeling of unity and charity that the world felt after the attacks. But then it turned out that half the class had never heard about 9/11. So I had to backtrack. Which was intense. I basically had to tell them what happened that morning, in the simplest, gentlest way possible. Of course they all wanted to know why, why we were attacked. And I didn’t give them the easy, “bad guys against good guys” answer. I said that in America we are lucky to have our basic needs met- food, shelter, clean water. I said that though there are many nice people living in America (like us), we don’t always share what we have. I said that other countries in the world think of us as bullies. And for that reason and others some people got mad and decided to harm us, because they thought we were not being fair or nice. And I said that the best way we can help stop this from happening again is to learn about the world, to be humble, and to be giving. I needed to give them a message of hope, and though I know I oversimplified (and possibly misrepresented a bit), I tried to present it in a way that 6 year olds would be able to handle. 6 year olds get bullies and sharing. I hope I did alright.
So yeah, that was my morning. In the afternoon, during Choice Time, I noticed a funny burning smell right around the time that kids started shouting that “Curtis threw a tinker toy on the lights!” Uh huh. He threw a tinker toy up into the light fixture and it started to melt and we were all breathing in the toxins. One girl told me that she felt dizzy. Ugh. I turned out the lights for the rest of the day, and tried to get the boy to tell me if there were more items up there. Of course he said no because he already knew he was in trouble, but later the custodian found an eraser. Have I mentioned in this entry that my life is very glamourous? Well it is.
Mike is in Atlanta and I miss him. I’ve decided to replace boyfriend time with “cooking time” and “blogging time.” So here’s to being back on the Internet. Cheers.