remember...

So this morning I got an email from the student who broke the news about the Twin Towers attack. I haven't heard from him in years. He was thinking of what happened that morning--how I thought he was just kidding and (for once) he was being serious. Then how my class went down the hall to the room with the big tv, so we could all watch what was unfolding.

I will never forget. I remember my initial reaction to being told--that Jesse was joking and the conversation we had.

Then, later, my classes wrote letters to the schools in those neighborhoods that were affected. Some of my students had pen-pals for the rest of the year as we all processed what happened. It meant a lot to me that my students wanted to reach out, that they had compassion and empathy for their counter-parts.