A Little Vulnerability

Little did I know when we crafted the Write 6x6 prompts that, during the week where we would
explore how we talk about current events, America would be struggling, once again, with grief and
anger after the 129th school shooting of 2023.

As I write this, my fifth grader is across town taking the state science test, and my high schooler
is conjugating verbs in French class. They are engaged in tasks that they probably won’t
remember–moments experienced by a million kids before them, nothing that should cause me
any worry. However, every time there is (yet another) school shooting, I spend suffocating under
the weight of anxiety and sadness until I can gather them home again.

Though it is statistically unlikely that one of my kids would be involved in a school shooting, gun violence
is now the number one cause of death in America for children ages 1 to 18. This is an important issue,
and one I know my kids and I should be talking about, but I am ashamed to say that I feel
unequipped to talk about it. Do I bring it up? Do I wait for an invitation to talk about it? Is there
a “right” thing to say or a way to help them make sense of the tragedy? How strong should I appear
when inside I am sad and angry?

It feels like there are more ways to mess it up than there are to get it “right.” My heart tells me that the best approach is to be honest and open. I know that I don’t have to have the answers, because what answers are there in the face of such senseless terror and loss?

I wrestle with similar feelings of inadequacy when I consider discussing current events in my
classroom. Though we have student-led discussion circles every other week, I do not purposefully
set aside time for discussing current events. When they arise organically, I make space for the
conversation. I try to rise to the occasion, again, with honesty, openness, and a little vulnerability.
I know I am doing my students no service by going on with business as usual when the world outside
our classroom door has been pitched into chaos. Everything from incidents of police violence to the
price of gas impacts their lives, and learning doesn’t occur in a vacuum.

Write 6x6 offers such a unique space for us to share with and learn from each other, and so I
am hopeful I might gather a few bits of wisdom or tools for my toolkit from the posts of others this week.
In the meantime, I prepare to fumble my way through a hard conversation with my own kids this evening.
I cannot tell them that everything will be okay, but we can sit together in our not-knowing.