By Laura Scarfo
If the recent tragedy in the United States is a difficult topic for adults to understand, it is even more difficult for young people. Teachers in Centretown schools have the unenviable job of tackling the subject with their students.
Susan Kehoe, an English teacher at Immaculata High, says that the recent terrorist attack was constantly on the minds of her Grade 12 students. The class discussed it almost everyday. Finally, she gave them a homework assignment: to write anything that best expressed their feelings about the event. What she received from her students astonished her.
“I was really moved by the honest portrayals that were submitted.- I have never seen kids grasp an activity like this one,” Kehoe says. “It’s like they really felt they had something important to do.”
Moya Nanchengwa, a 17-year-old student in Kehoe’s class, says the assignment gave students a chance to finally express themselves.
“We were overloaded with input but had no chance to output,” she says. “We finally had a chance to say what we think, not what our parents or the media or our peers tell us to feel.”
She writes in her assignment (she chose to do a personal reflection): “I thought of the husband who had fought with his wife before work, the morning of the attack, and never got a chance to apologize.”
Allison Eagen, another student in the class, said discussing the events in class gave her a chance to react and to hear different perspectives. She wrote a poem that she says reflects how people felt.
“My poem went through the different stages of people’s reaction – first there’s disbelief, shock, fear and finally hope.”
One stanza of her poem reads: “That something of this nature could/ strike so close to home/ But in viewing all the people/ Honouring those lost/ There is a sense of comfort, for we are/ not alone.”
Some students say the assignment helped them feel better.
“I feel better after having done [the assignment],” says Justin Hanley, another student in Kehoe’s class. “It helped me piece everything together.”
Dr. John Dorner, principal of St. Anthony School on Booth Street, says that reinforcing positive messages is the key when speaking to the young children at his school.
“We raised the issue ourselves because we wanted the message to be loud and clear that we are all children of God and we are all brothers and sisters,” says Dorner.
He adds that reassuring children is important because it dispels feelings of helplessness and allows them to feel that they can make a difference.
He says the children in his school are “very aware of the events but the feeling is not debilitating.”
Dorner visited each classroom in his school on the day of the attack.
“I haven’t found any one question too difficult to deal with,” says Dorner. “When I’m asked why someone would do this, I explain that people see things in different ways.”
St. Anthony School held a prayer service for the victims of the tragedy and is considering making a donation to one of the many relief funds.
As for how to deal with students at home, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board issued a news release on the day of the attack that encouraged par- ents to talk to their children about the events:
“Be factual and avoid jumping to conclusions,” it reads. “Be supportive and nonjudgmental. Repeat reassurances about safety and security.”