"Life In The 21st Century"

Katrina will be in the hearts and on the minds of the American people for a long time to come. But in the face of this disaster there are some ways, we as educators can make a difference with our students to understand all the events that led up to hurricane, the coverage, the post reactions, and the reconstruction. We are living the history now...why not capitalize on it.

This is an opportunity (like the Tsunami) for students to champion a cause, put on their boots and get to work. They can design ways to help in ways adults cannot. But my fear is that school will start with students entering the doors with their new bookbags, pristine pencil cases, spanking new shoes, and Hurricane Katrina will become a thing of the past...almost like the tsunami has become. Our young people need to know this is an ongoing relief effort and it's going to take everyone to help get these AMERICAN CITIZENS (not refugees) the help they need. I hate hearing the term refugees.

One of my goals will be to probe and ask my students on the first day of school, do you know someone affected? Have they received help? For my journalism students, my first question will be, "what if we didn't have the media?" I mean we put down the role the media plays with these news events. But frankly, if Shepard Smith, Geraldo and others (courtesy of Wonkette) didn't scream to the government to GET DOWN HERE AND HELP! I doubt there would be help coming now.

I also thought that having my own two kids starting a new school was going to be a tough transition for me. How self absorbed I can be at times. Now, after reading about all of the displaced children trying to get into school, I'm just happy my kids have a school to go to. It could easily be anyone of us in the Post Katrina storm; which is why we should GIVE, GIVE, GIVE with that in mind.