Friday, May 16, 2008

may flowers

i started to feel that every time i walked into a kindergarten class this may there was a birthday. someone was wearing a crown and having trouble staying in their chair to do their work. sometimes i've walked into classrooms this month and noticed multiple crowns~ 2 kids with birthdays on the same day.

hmmm.... one has to think. what was 9 months and 6 years ago?

and then i realized, these are our 9/11 babies, almost finished with their first year of kindergarten. the pre-mies (many of whom are on my caseload) had birthdays in april, or even late march, while the full-termers are having their birthdays now.

i remember the reports on the news about the large amounts of pregnancies right after 9/11, and the record number of births in may that year. now our 9/11 babies are here, learning to read, write, tie their shoes, and proudly tell anyone near them that they have turned 6. they have no memory of that day in september, or any understanding of how it changed everything we knew. talking about that day will mean little to them for many, many years, although psychologists may state that their entire existence comes from the purest human emotion in a time of need.

i was in my own teaching classes on 9/11, but i still remember watching the children of my practicum process the day. and the following year, i was student teaching and watching them remember what they'd felt the year before. and the following years, where they had vague recollections of the day, and some understanding of what made their moms and dads so scared. and now, we're teaching the next generation, the after-math babies, our little hopes and promises that the sun truly will continue to rise each day.

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