TCLA:. The Digital Divide:. LA Teachers:. Teaching Peace in Los Angeles

In History Class, A Flood of Urgent and Newly Relevant Questions:
Mary Hendra, a 1999 graduate of UCLA's Teacher Education Program and a member of the Early Career Network, wrote an article for The Christian Science Monitor explaining her experiences of dealing with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in her classroom.

Noam Chomsky's Comments:
Click here to read Noam Chomsky's reaction to the September 11th terrorist attacks.
(Courtesy Radio B92, Belgrade)

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Concerns of a letter of a first-year Arab-American teacher in New York
September 15, 2001
New York City

Dear educator,

As teachers we have an urgent task in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Our Arab, Arab American, Muslim, Mideastern, and Southeast Asian students and neighbors need our vigilance and sustained support. It is essential for us to work in our respective arenas to organize with our co-workers, friends, relatives, neighbors and students for local citizen protection and outreach. For those of you living in areas without populations targeted for violence on the basis of skin color, religion, or accent, please reach out to organizations that need your support. There are schools in the New York City area where children and teachers have already been targeted. These children and teachers are not only suffering the daze, depression, worry, and anger that so many of us feel, but they are also experiencing severe threats to their physical safety.

On Tuesday night I wrote a very brief email to a first year teacher who is completing her teacher education program here at Teachers College. She has taken a position at a school in Brooklyn that serves a large number of Arab and Muslim children. She herself is Egyptian American. In my email, I inquired about her safety. This is an edited version of her reply.
(She wishes not to be named at this time.)

-Professor Celia Oyler, Teachers College, Columbia University.

Hi Celia,

Thank you for your concern and support. I hope that all is well with you and that you have not faced too much grief as a result of the tragic incident. I have not suffered any loss myself - not that I know of yet, at least. The loss I suffer is different now. It's the feeling of not being comfortable walking down the street anymore, the feeling that I can not participate in political debates, state my last name or ethnicity, etc. Every time this type of thing happens I pray that the perpetrators are not Muslim or Arab - for it makes our lives that much harder. It's like I have to deal with both sides of the issue: the WTC getting bombed (as an American) and the potential retribution (as an Arab and a Muslim). The loss of any human life is always a tragedy for all of humanity. A single loss affects us all. Watching all those people was so surreal and unimaginable.

My school is closed until next week as a result of numerous bomb threats and physical attacks upon the school. Trying to evacuate the kids out of the school was a madhouse that day! Every time a little girl walked out with her hair covered, she got things thrown at her and insulted by onlookers. "Terrorist!! Go back to your own country!" they screamed. I have had this told to me many times growing up in the U.S., but it kills me to see a child go through it - especially since they have no idea of what is happening. But what do I expect from a people that are so saturated with negative media images of Arabs, Muslims, and foreigners in general? How can I expect them to not realize that what happened was done by a small group of frustrated, angry, hateful people? Should I wear a shirt that says, "We're not all that bad". We also had to deal with the children who have grown up in war zones mainly Palestine and Bosnia. Many of them broke down and had flashbacks of their homelands and of the countless horrors they have witnessed in their short lives. Nothing could have ever prepared me for the experience of witnessing a child throw themselves on the ground and scream, "They're going to kill us! We're going to die!" and then start praying and crying. I can't stop the tears as I write this even. Imagine all that on my first day teaching!!

My family is very sad - grieving for the lives taken and for thelives about to be taken. My parents have warned me not to discuss politics, cover my hair, or state my ethnicity to anyone. They told me that now is not the time for political statements - what can I say, they are parents above all else. My mother and father have both left work early because they couldn't handle listening to the comments people made about us. My 19-year-old sister's Palestinian friends are all staying with her due to death threats they receive on the phone. My 11 year old sister's postboard that she set up for Muslim girls has been closed down due to toomuch hate mail. My roommate who is also Egyptian couldn't go to class today because of all the posters declaring war on Arab terrorists. She was shaking so hard she couldn't concentrate. I don't know what to do if war breaks out, for surely some of my people will be absolutely demolished.

All of us have to listen silently when others talk of "bombing those Arab barbarians to death." Is it selfish to think of the struggle that we have to face in the U.S. when so many people have been killed? I can't help it. It's not that I don't feel sorry for all the people in the tragic incident, it's just that I know the repercussions will be enormous.