I was reading the thread on JFK’s assassination and was surprised by the number of people who heard the news from primary school teacher or principal.
Was anyone here 5-10 years of age, and in school when Reagan was shot, or on 9/11, or any other point when something shocking happened? Did a school employee tell the class what happened?
We didn’t watch the Challenger explode live, but a few minutes later, our sixth grade teacher gathered us around the classroom TV, where we watched the news for awhile.
I’m trying to remember what the story was, but a few years ago something very significant happened during the school day, and the decision was made by admin that we should not talk with our students about it that day, instead leaving it to parents to talk with their kids about; we were able to talk with them the next day.
(On further thought, it may have been the sudden death of a faculty member, so not a national tragedy–but I suspect a national tragedy would be handled similarly.)
Reagan’s shooting (4th or 5th grade) caused a TV to be wheeled into the classroom, which was a first. Since he was okay, I didn’t understand what the big deal was. Now I realize the teachers were all reliving the Kennedy assassination.
Similar for the Challenger, though I was in junior high and the coverage was in the school library; I think we were there anyway for something rather than called over special.
San Diego, if it matters.
My wife was teaching on 9/11, and the answer is yes.
What someone is going to say obviously depends on the level of the class.
ETA: When I was in elementary school, they used to show us the space launches, live on TV. Particularly when contact was lost with Scott Carpenter’s capsule, there was a very real possibility that, much like the Challenger, we could’ve have seen a tragedy as it happened.
I was teaching in a grade school when Reagan was shot. There was an announcement over the PA when the event happened and a later one that it looked like he was going to be OK.
When the Challenger exploded, we were told. It was a rather dramatic thing for our school, because one of our fifth grade teachers had made it very near the final round of selection, so there was a lot of “OMG, it could have been Mrs. Sidler!” going on. As I remember it, our teacher was called to the office, along with all the other teachers, and when she came back, her eyes were red from crying, and she told us. I assume they quickly told the staff and asked them to tell their classes.
My son’s class was told a little bit about 911 as it happened, but he never told me precisely what. He was 8 at the time.
We were shown the live news coverage of 9/11 as it happened, as well as the coverage of Columbine a few years earlier.
Surely I’m remembering wrong but on reading this thread there popped into my mind a memory of our school (high school) announcing results of the OJ Simpson verdict!
I was a senior in high school when 9/11 happened, and we were told, at an assembly, and dismissed fairly early.
I was in ninth grade when Columbine happened, but I don’t think we were told about it in class. I remember us having an assembly about it but not till later.
Oops, OP asked for five to ten year olds. Never mind!
I was in grade school for the attempted assassinations of Ford. I don’t recall hearing about them at all (School or home). Two attempts, one round fired, and nobody was seriously injured. It doesn’t quite make the cut for “national tragedy.”
I was in junior high for the Reagan attempt. I wasn’t in school though. I think it was Spring Break.
I was in high school for the Challenger explosion. I think they had the teachers announce it at the start of the next period instead of over the PA. My teacher for that period had made it pretty far in the teacher in space selection process. I clearly remember his announcement and the TV coming out. That might just be the extra emotional loading of “it could have been him” and seeing the video for the first time making me forget an announcement though.
I was in 6th grade during 9/11, and the day mostly consisted of watching the news on the TVs in each classroom.
According to Wikipedia, Reagan was shot at 2:27 PM EST, so my school (I was a second grader) was about to be dismissed when it happened so the faculty likely never got the message. In fact, I believe I had just arrived home when Frank Reynolds famously redacted his original report that the President was unharmed. I have heard numerous accounts about schools being let out early when JFK was killed. I also remember having the following day off when the Iranian Embassy hostages were freed in 1981. I was a seventh grader when the Challenger exploded, and was in the library on pass during study hall, when someone from the main office came in and told the librarian what happened, and she turned on a TV (the school’s TV/VCRs were kept there) so we could watch the coverage. IIRC, the news simply spread around the school via word of mouth without any formal acknowledgement.
I was working at a law firm on 9/11 and I remember that so many of the secretaries had to leave to pick up their kids due to school closings that they just shut the office down for the day.
I think to some extent it’s going to depend on the specifics of the event, the school, the location etc. I wasn’t in school yet for the JFK assassination, but my understanding from those older than me is that many Catholic schools immediately told the students and then started praying. That wouldn’t happen in a public school. And I seem to recall that a lot of students didn’t need to be told about the Challenger explosion because they saw it live.
My children were 10 and 11 on 9/11 and they were not told of the events by the school. I’m not sure how much of that was due to the fact that we’re in NYC and it was almost a certainty that some kids had parents who worked either at the WTC or nearby or at firehouses that would have responded. The school did not close early because many of the parents would not have been able to get there if they had.
my school was so poor we didn’t have a tv set.
word got passed around though.
I was in 10th grade, and found out about the attack during math class 2nd period, we ended up watching the news with the class in the other room. Every other class that day consisted of watching TV (they even put the big projection model in the cafeteria) save Advanced Biology where the teacher gave lectured us about different kinds of biological warfare and pathogens like anthrax & smallpox. We weren’t let out early, but by that afternoon there were a lot of names being called to the office for their parents to pick them up. Normal(ish) teaching started to resume Wednesday, but all social studies classed for the rest of the week were spend watching the news. The teachers justified this on the grounds that the current events were more important than other material they could teach, and the possibly of a draft effecting the male students.
The Pearl Harbor attacks happened on Sunday, but according to my grandmother her high school had an assembly to listed to Roosevelt’s speech in Congress on Monday. After if was over a lot of the senior boys walked out of the school to head to the recruiting office.
Let’s see… 2nd grade when Reagan was shot. ISTR that the teacher mentioned it to us, and we went on with our day.
7th grade (5th period, as a matter of fact), Challenger accident. Mr Doggett, our computer teacher left for a bit, and came back and matter-of-factly told us that there had been an accident with the launch of the Challenger, and that we didn’t know much. Not long after that, we all gathered up by grade level pods (each grade level was organized into “pods” of roughly 100-125 students with common teachers), where we watched the news footage.
I was an adult by the time of 9/11 and the Columbia accident.
The Vice Principal made an announcement on our middle school PA system when the Challenger exploded.
It was bitterly cold that day and the school’s heating system was not working properly. His words were to the effect of, “I’m sorry to report that…” and with that opening we started to gather books, assuming we were being dismissed early. Instead we went upstairs to a science lab and watched the news on TV.
I was in 5th grade visiting the nurses office for a skinned knee which was adjacent to the main school office. The door was open so I could see our pricipal making the announcement live on the PA that Reagan had been shot.
The Challenger was a big deal at my junior high. We watched the news half the day, I think, and the same was going on next door at the elementary school. It may have been a bigger deal at my school, because the Challenger was supposed to move into the nearby air force base, and many of my schoolmates’ parents’ jobs kind of disappeared, which pretty much happened in my family too.
I remember Reagan getting shot and the memory is connected with school, but I was only about 7 so I’m not sure.
The First Gulf War took place during my senior year of high school. We watched a whole lot of news in class, esp. during math–the teacher just had it on, silently, all the time for weeks.
I was five when the Challenger exploded. I don’t recall any announcement, but I might not have been old enough to pay attention or care. I don’t know if they told the older kids.
Not a tragedy, but I was eight when the Berlin Wall fell. We did hear about that, although I think it was a day or two later, when they could figure out how to explain it at leisure.
Frylock may not be misremembering about the OJ Simpson verdict. I was a freshman in high school at the time. No formal announcement was made, but that was mostly because we already had a CCTV system with a TV in every classroom, and the library could feed network/cable broadcasts through one of the internal channels. Class stopped while everyone watched.