9/11 Reflection

As I was driving in to work today I was struck with a realization:

My students were not even born when the world changed.

They have no recollection of the fear and uncertainty that resulted.

Or the hope that empowered our nation.

They do no know what it's like to be glued to the television, hungry for any answer, shred of knowledge, or piece of information that might shed some light on an unimaginable tragedy.

They don't know what it's like to wait for a loved one at the gate in the airport.

They don't know a world without the terms jihad, al Qaeda, or Osama bin Laden.

And I was saddened.  They were born into a world that I never imagined.  But this devastation is their reality.  And then I asked myself, are they better off because of their ignorance?

I look around at my students, a canvas of different hues of brown; some darker than others, some lighter.  And it occurred to me that they do not see their differences.  The racial profiling that existed immediately after 9/11 gave way to a deeper need; our need as humans to connect and understand each other.  We strove to educate ourselves about the differences between extremist beliefs and traditional Muslim beliefs.  We took the time to learn differences between Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.  We turned on the news and tuned into the world.  We vowed to teach our children love, acceptance, and understanding and to surround them with those who are different than our own families.  And instead of pointing out our differences in their most basic form, we taught our children how to ask questions that matter, learning from each other.

And the results stare me in the face each day.  There are still divides to cross; gender, socio-economic, educational, the list goes on, but the divide based on race is not as evident in my classroom of 11 year olds.  It is exceptionally smaller than the divide that stared me in the face six years ago.  The strides toward equality are in the hands of this younger generation.  We've set the tone.  We've shown them what it can look like.  We've started the ball rolling, and we've already started passing ownership to these young people with so much promise ahead of them.  We can learn a lot from the faces that look to us for guidance.

And I am filled with hope that some good can continue to come from something so tragic.