Miss Ann Says

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Miss Ann Says
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  • Daily Archives: February 18, 2012

    • respect in the real world – #2- School group

      Posted at 2:54 pm by missannsays, on February 18, 2012

      One of my volunteer positions is gallery guide for the Tribute Center.  I am also a docent for the Tribute Center which involves leading walking tours of the National September 11 Memorial in New York. As a gallery guide I have the privilege of speaking to school groups that visit the center. I believe strongly “in telling the next generation”.  I love every opportunity to speak with young people. Telling the story of September 11 to children and teens can be “tricky”.  Those children and teens who are now in fifth to 12 grade don’t really have their own memories of that day.  How could they?  The teens who graduate from High School this year were only 7 years old in 2001. The current fifth grade class were babies. That is part of the reason the Tribute Center is so passion about telling the stories.  We lived it but after 10 years it can become a dot on the timeline of history unless educators teach their students. I have had students make me smile as they tell me what they know about 9/11.  Note: I always say September 11 not 9/11. Anyway.  I had a fourth grader tell me “there were tourists who hijacked 6 planes”.  Close they were terrorists – we want to be tourist but we don’t want to be terrorists and there were 4 planes. The one thing I try to avoid mentioning is that people jumped from the buildings. But some child always asked “did people really jump” and I try to discuss that in an age appropriate way. It is an amazing experience speaking to the children and teens.  And I love it. But this past week for the first time I had a group that had no clue where they were.  I guess the teachers didn’t inform them of where they were going or they didn’t listen.  I don’t know but there was a moment when I realized the being young and clueless does not give you a licence to disrespect. So I sucker punched them.  I started with the ” Okay, We are just going for it.  My husband was one of the 343 firefighters that was killed on September 11 and my daughters were your age then. And Tracy her 24-year-old son was murdered when terrorist flew commercial jetliners into buildings right across the street from here. And this didn’t happen in 1776, 1820, 1860 or 19 whatever it happened in 2001 and you were alive then and you need to know and understand this because someday your children are going to ask you what happen here . Okay, now breathe.”  I can’t say I felt bad for sucker punching them. I can say that it was the moment that I truly understood that the stories of September 11 are that important and they have to be told.

      Posted in kid stuff, respect in the real world, September 11 | 1 Comment | Tagged September 11, telling the next generation
    • respect in the real world -#1- Dr office

      Posted at 2:17 pm by missannsays, on February 18, 2012

      I had to take my mum for her yearly neurologist appointment last week.  The office requests that you arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment. I appreciate that it is almost impossible to keep a doctor’s office running on time.  If I want the doctor to spend time with me, I need to realize that he/she will also be spending time with the other patients and the schedule will not be running perfectly.  All that said to say I wasn’t surprised that we were going to have to wait.  I was surprised at how rude the receptionist was to an elderly patient who arrived late.  The receptionist informed her that she was 5 minutes late and that she had been told to arrive 15 minutes early.  Really!!! The receptionist knew that the doctor had not been waiting for this patient to arrive he was running late. I glanced at my watch and knew he was running at least 15 minutes late because my mum hadn’t gone in yet. Did I mention that all of this was loud enough for the entire office/waiting room to hear?  I was about ready to comment when the nurse called my mum’s name – 21 minutes after the scheduled appointment and 36 minutes after we had arrived.  Wow!! I really hope that elderly patient arriving 5 minutes late didn’t throw the whole office off of its written in stone schedule. Maybe cutting people a little slack would be a good idea especially when the doctor is running late.

      Posted in respect in the real world | 0 Comments | Tagged respect
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