On 9/11

Each year, that day comes
The Yarzeidt, the anniversary,
The commemoration

It will hurt
It always does
Each year
The recollection

There is a feeling
When you re-explore
The moments before
When the world was as it had been
The time you awoke,
How you felt,
What you wore
The weather
And then, the moment after
Fear, anguish, grief upon grief upon grief
The new world and the old one never to be again

Tomorrow, the day after, you
Adjust to the missing
The grief never fully abated
Remaining as, in time, a soft shadow
Or a phantom limb
You are forced to return
To new normal

You wake up and proceed
Perhaps you smile
I think that is what they would have wanted
To live, to experience
with greater care
For moments
Whose value cannot be told

9/11

9/11 is perhaps the most significant day in the American collective consciousness. The national sentiment is one thing. The personal perspective of a New Yorker is quite another.

In 2001, I worked across the street from the World Trade Center. For me, the World Trade Center and its vicinity was a vibrant community. On Tuesdays, I shopped at the farmers' market. Strawberries and blueberries rarely made it home. New Jersey asparagus in late March signaled the end of winter. Like every market, this one was alive with chatter. I can't help but wonder, post-9/11, what happened to those people whose shoulders brushed mine reaching for the string beans.

9/11/2001 fell on a Tuesday. I was planning on stopping by the farmers' market before heading to my office. There were no news reports about the vendors until several weeks later, when passing mention was made in some newspaper. The farmers made it out, losing their produce and vehicles. But what of my fellow customers?

Public concerts on the World Trade Center plaza also added a sense of community. John Gorka played a concert at the World Trade Center plaza on the evening of August 29th. It was a crystal clear evening. The audience included fans who had traveled just to hear the concert. Workers leaving their offices, also sat to listen before heading elsewhere What was the fate of the men and women who stalled to listen? John Gorka wrote a poignant, slightly acerbic song called "I saw a Stranger with Your Hair." Though written about the painful fallout from a failed relationship, the context of that concert and the events that followed only a few days later, lend a different dimension to the lyrics:

I heard a stranger with your voice
It took me by surprise
Again I found it wasn't you
Just an angel in disguise
In for a visit

By the way how is my heart
I haven't seen it since you left
I'm almost sure it followed you
Could you sometime send it back
I'll buy the ticket

(Chorus)
I saw a stranger with your hair
I saw another with your eyes
I heard an angel with your voice
By the way how is my heart
By the way how is my heart

Whether or not we knew someone wrenched from life in the 9/11 attacks, a space is nonetheless in our hearts for all of the human lives and community lost in the attack. We mourn the reality that there are those who truly wish to hurt, maim and destroy. May we evolve to a new reality where we all strive for peace and health together. May peace be with you all on this 10th anniversary of 9/11.

When she was in 9th grade, my daughter was identified as a gifted student with non-visible, brain-based disabilities. Parenting this type of student requires active involvement even in the late years of high school. I was involved in reviewing assignments and teaching practices long after most parents are out of the picture. Consequently, I gained insight into ways in which education in my district fell short. Two areas of deficiency, in particular, were standouts. Unfortunately, I found that the teachers at this particular school neither respected their students' time and were not particularly concerned about articulating learning objectives, other than attaining 'good' scores on advanced placement tests.

The lack of attention to teaching time management was so glaring as to be highly offensive. One teacher was asked how long she would expect a typically functioning student to complete assignments and the response, accompanied by an eye roll and shoulder shrug was “I don’t know, it never occurred to me to ask.” A summer assignment for one advanced placement English course was so – in litigation speak – overly broad and unduly burdensome that it was offensive. It required students to basically create their own, hand-written study guide for an excessively long book - one that you wouldn't even name as a top ten, all time literary great. Basically, the assignment encompassed about a semester's worth of work. It was clear that the teacher didn't even take into consideration the amount of time it would take to complete the assignment or the fact that these students have other obligations.

Sadly, the life-long take away also didn't seem rank high in importance at the school my daughter attended. Again, that alarming summer English assignment is a prime example. Other than giving the students a really long book to read and lots of time consuming, meaningless busy work, there was no apparent educational objective. There was one teacher who effectively taught students to recognize rhetorical devices and enriched their reading experiences. However, my impression was that his primary objective was to make sure his students got high scores on the Advanced Placement exam. The meaningful lessons learned in that class were incidental and it should really be the other way around. It's about the content, not the exam. When students master the material, success on tests naturally follows. Of course, students need to be taught the test format, but that shouldn't be the primary focus of the course.

At a minimum, teachers should have respect for their student's time. Assignments should be formulated to develop specific skills and teach specific knowledge. I know funds are tight, but the changes I suggest cost absolutely nothing and require little more than application of common sense. This is not intended to condemn all teachers. In fact, I recently met a teacher from a neighboring district who told me that she constantly discusses time management in her middle school classes and that she makes sure to balance the load so that students can balance work and play over the weekend. I'll bet she can also tell you exactly what she hopes her students will have learned by the end of the year.

At the end of the day, I felt compelled to find another school where my daughter could complete her high school education. I am grateful for the support given by the district’s administration in permitting my daughter to complete her high school studies at a local college. I just glanced the syllabus for my daughter’s economics course. It clearly states the amount of time a student should expect to spend preparing for class and four precise objectives identifying what the teacher hopes students will learn in the course. This is as it should be.