just....thinking

I'm having quite the reflective moment here: watching CNN coverage of the earthquake and tsunami, while reading students journals (oh yeah, wild Friday night in the Speiser household!) it is causing some mental meanderings.  I had bus duty this morning so many of the students were running up and asking if I had heard about the earthquake or the tsunami.  Being here--in Oregon--they are words that my students know and understand.  They have clout.

So, it's pretty incredible.  And awful.  And for some reason I've been thinking about public memories, and perhaps my recent birthday has me dating them.  What was yours?  I think my first was the country's bicentennial, because we did cool art projects--I was 8.  But then, I remember in '80 Reagan got shot, and the Phillies won the World Series.  I was in a college class fifteen years ago or so and the students were asked what their public memories were.  Most kids said the space shuttle blowing up. I bet that most of my students wouldn't remember September 11th, but I know a few of the kids I had that year will remember it.

In fact, a few years ago, on that day, an ex-student called me to just to tell me how he remembers me every year on that day, because it was so profound. And I guess that's what has me musing.  This kind of day is shocking, and our reactions are profound.  And I can't help but think about how completely ill-equipped I was in 2001 to handle that kind of trauma or responsibility--but I guess you just sort of deal--you rally--and