Floating Foundations

Livingston writes a lot about adapting her English course to the students and their experiences. Everyone in her classes had a different take on what had happened in the hurricane. But even more than that, as new students came into the university, they had an even more different take on the event. The students that were there or lived in New Orleans when the hurricane hit were much more attached to the subject and could make all kinds of connections from it. She writes, “In fact, incoming freshmen in my fall 2007 classes rarely expressed any interest in Katrina, but instead increasingly talked about ‘moving beyond Katrina’” (40). As time went on, the older students who had connections to the University pre-Katrina moved on and graduated while new ones came in who only knew New Orleans post-Katrina. The newer students were not interested in reflecting on what had happened, but rather wanted to focus on rebuilding and dealing with the aftermath.

The teacher’s approach in her English class had to change, because the assignments were geared towards the students who had been there and witnessed the dramatic changes. Those students were no longer in her class, and thus was not benefiting the new students in the same ways as the assignments had before. This makes me think of September 11, 2001. I remember very clearly what happened that morning. I can play it back in my mind. I was in fifth grade, and I remember coming down from my room for breakfast and my mom was there already making my lunch with the news on. At that point, the first plane had already hit the first tower and I watched Good Morning America with disbelief. About ten minutes later, I watched the second plane crash. Live.

Since then, we have talked about 9/11 on its anniversary and always done a few minutes of reflection, especially in our English classes in middle and high school. I will never forget that morning. I read “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” in high school and thought it was a great book. I saw United 93 and World Trade Center and though they were extremely hard to watch, they were very good movies. But now I have to wonder if my little cousins who were born in 1999 and 2000 will feel the same way if they see those movies and read that book. Will they have the same reactions as I did? Will they feel that connection even though they don’t remember what they were doing on that day, that morning? Will teachers continue to provide a time during class to reflect, write, and talk about what happened? I would hope so, but I’m not sure if the younger students will find it helpful or useful like I did.