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Responding to 9/11.

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Abstract

Writing teachers are not trained as trauma counselors or therapists. How, then, should they respond to national crises such as the recent terrorist attacks in their writing classrooms? Writing teachers function most effectively as compassionate, non-judgmental, non-critical listeners and moderators. Allowing students to reflect on and write about tragedies like 9/11 yields more insightful writers, more confident human beings, and more concerned citizens.

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Writing

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 changed our lives forever. As the events of that horrific day unfolded on the television screen, writing teachers across the nation responded both personally and professionally on the Writing Program Administrators listserv with reports, reactions, and questions about appropriate pedagogy. A long discussion evolved over the next couple of weeks about our responsibilities as writing teachers to help our students deal with such traumatic events. Some questioned whether English teachers should assume the role of classroom counselor or therapist. The majority of the respondents on the WPA listserv, however, reported that they had used this national crisis as a forum for their students to express their feelings about the tragedy, both orally and in writing. On my local campus and on others across the nation, teachers from many disciplines responded to the tragedy of 9/11 in various ways--by discussing the events, by writing about the crisis, or by discovering opportunities to link their course curriculum with current events.

Responding to Crisis through Writing

I believe it is the nature of writing teachers to create a nurturing relationship between teacher and students (and amongst students) and a classroom atmosphere in which students feel free to and are encouraged to express their views and emotions about things that matter to them by speaking and writing. My goal as a first-year writing teacher is to help students communicate these ideas and feelings more effectively. How can I ignore national and community crises that undeniably impact the rhetorical situation in which we all write and respond? Although my pedagogical training did not equip me to counsel and advise students to deal with personal crises, in a national or community crisis my counseling skills may be tested. In the shared trauma of 9/11, for example, it was natural to share our communal grief within the safety and security...

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