From the issue dated September 28, 2001
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In the Words of ChildrenBy ROBERT COLES
In a few words, his casual comment spoke for so many of us -- a child remarking on a nation's vaunted strength, suddenly challenged by its all-too-evident vulnerability. That youngster was already looking worriedly to the future, as children sometimes do, with a bit of apprehension. And perhaps, such a response has turned out to be shared by many children who have learned from this recent September war at home that national "hurt" may not be ruled out as a possibility. A spell of American peril and pain, of history become a public "hurt," had prompted him to have misgivings about his country's future. And it is the nature of that future, of course, that will decide what a time of being "worried" will mean in the long haul of his thinking life and, one suspects, in the introspective life of so many of his age-mates. That's not to mention the rest of us, who will have good reason to set aside our anxieties and fears only if things go well in America concerning our daily security. Resiliency is no stranger to children. It flourishes under favoring circumstances at home, in school -- even as fear takes hold when tragedy strikes, as that child, and surely not he alone, indicated through his straightforward remarks. Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at Harvard University. http://chronicle.com Section: The Chronicle Review Page: B16
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Copyright © 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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Reflections on the Fractured Landscape |
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