“Where were you when you found out?” everyone asks. Surprisingly I hadn’t given too much thought to this question over the past couple of years until someone asked, “Who was your most memorable high school teacher?” (Yes, I was still in high school then.)

Enterprise 9/11 coverage

News:

Finally, World Trade Center rises from ground zero. 

After 9/11, searching for American optimism. 

Local ceremonies remember 9/11 attacks. 

Local perspectives. 

A list of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack victims. 

Opinion:

‘Tis a gift to be simple, ’tis a gift to be free. 

Fear is where we live now.

Each 9/11, I stop to remember.

Val Dolcini letter. 

Our view.

What do you think?

Mr. Jim O’Keefe was my prompt response, but then I tried to remember why I felt so strongly about that. Mr. O’Keefe was my first-period teacher and as we all straggled into school that morning, long after the towers had collapsed, he was the first to talk to us about duty, honor, our country and how even though it wouldn’t feel like it, life would go on.

All this to a class of seniors just starting college applications and entering that time of limbo where we all wondered where our lives were going.

At 7:45 a.m. PST, he had had no time for training from counselors, no canned answers to give us, just the truth about what he thought might happen and try to help us the best he could. Strangely, I still think we did calculus that morning so he must have been a phenomenal teacher to calm us and still walk us through derivatives.

So while there are the military heroes, the first responders, the volunteers everyone cites as having an impact on today, don’t forget those who comforted the youth. Those who had to deal with kids in school that morning, calming them, helping them understand, and most of all, still remembering that we might still need our math skills once the dust settled.

Sarah Rozelle

Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Comments

comments