In times of crisis and tragedy, we come together as a community, to grieve, to remember, to pray. A third-grade teacher at The Rashi School in Dedham wrote a poem after the bombings in Boston that have taken three lives and injured more than 140 people. “The question to ask isn’t always ‘why’ but ‘what now?'”
We encourage you to read Jessica Solomon’s beautiful thoughts and to post your “what now” comments.
This Year As a Teacher
By Jessica Solomon
This year as a teacher, I will have taught children about gun violence and bombs and meteors exploding in the skies. I will have said “I don’t know” a few more times than I am comfortable with and tell them that there are some queries even Google cannot fathom.
But this year as a teacher I will have taught children about stars being born and poetry being written and the importance of hospitality to strangers. I will have talked of the symmetry of snowflakes, the taste of honey on the tongue, and the sound that music makes as its vibrations reach our ears. I will have shown them how to make mistakes with grace and grit, how to break white light into a thousand different colors, and how to get down on the floor when their friends drop their markers.
This year as a teacher I will have taught: the question to ask isn’t always “why?” but “what now?” I will have watched, eyes wide, as children live into the future with hearts full of hope and I will wonder at the goodness and beauty of it all.
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