On the morning of September 11th, I remember standing in a classroom in Boston's Chinatown. It was a free period in my day, and a colleague - I remember his name and tone of voice - told me to turn on the television because New York City was under attack. I couldn't believe him. I turned on the TV, stunned at what I was seeing, and started to think of family working in Manhattan and a close friend who had been due to fly out of Logan that morning. If you are an adult, you no doubt also remember where you were, who was with you, and how you felt when the shocking news hit you that late summer morning.
Most of our high school students have much fainter memories of that day, and soon WHS will be filled with students who can't remember it at all. Yet the events of that day are perhaps the centerpiece of 21st century history thus far; their impact still looms large in our world.
So at Watertown High, we remembered. I read an announcement on Thursday morning. We hung flags with the names of rescue workers who died. Social studies classes presented facts, perspectives, and background on the events of the day and the implications since. In my own English class, we read parts of Galway Kinnell's haunting poem, "When the Towers Fell," and wondered just what it means that "each light, each life, put out, lives within us."
Our history does indeed live within us. We hope we help our students make meaning of it, and find their place in our fractured world.
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