Dealing with Disaster
What should we tell children when tragedy strikes?
Dealing with Disaster
I was in college completing my undergraduate work in Education and Psychology on September 11, 2001 and it turned out to be a valuable learning moment for myself as a teacher. At my college classes went on as scheduled and were used as a time to talk about the events that occurred that day. At first I could not understand why we were still having class. Everyone was on edge and worried about what was going to happen next but I am glad that I had my class that day. My professor used the time to talk to us about how teachers should deal with such a tragic event. She told us that we can never tell children “it will be okay” because we can not guarantee that it will be. We should say to children “we’ll get through this” because no matter what the situation is there are ways to cope and heal. I am glad I had class that day because I do not know if I would have thought about it that way otherwise. The fact that Waverly School went on with the Connecticut Mastery Tests as planned was an example of how we show children how to deal with tragedy. Sometimes bad things happen but life must go on and we must cope.
I was in college completing my undergraduate work in Education and Psychology on September 11, 2001 and it turned out to be a valuable learning moment for myself as a teacher. At my college classes went on as scheduled and were used as a time to talk about the events that occurred that day. At first I could not understand why we were still having class. Everyone was on edge and worried about what was going to happen next but I am glad that I had my class that day. My professor used the time to talk to us about how teachers should deal with such a tragic event. She told us that we can never tell children “it will be okay” because we can not guarantee that it will be. We should say to children “we’ll get through this” because no matter what the situation is there are ways to cope and heal. I am glad I had class that day because I do not know if I would have thought about it that way otherwise. The fact that Waverly School went on with the Connecticut Mastery Tests as planned was an example of how we show children how to deal with tragedy. Sometimes bad things happen but life must go on and we must cope.
