I’d purposely waited to bring it up.

There are a lot of topics that I want to be the first to broach with my kids. This one I was curious to see what other would say.

“Did you talk about 9/11 at school today?” I asked casually over dinner. “Did your teachers say anything about it?”

Both of my school-age girls shook their heads. Violet seemed confused. But Hannah spoke up.

“No, but we talked about it at lunch. Like a lot.”

I’m always curious about what third-graders pass off as facts. “Cool. So what kind of stuff did you talk about?”

Hannah proceeded to relay information, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was mostly factual! Since this wasn’t addressed in the class apparently, I’m presuming that most of the other kids got their information from their parents.

We also had a good talk about why we don’t just call people “stupid” when “evil” is a much more accurate term. Vocabulary is important.

But I came away from the conversation with appreciation for the other parents of Hannah’s classmates. The line on 9/11 is “We Won’t Forget.” And it was clear that other parents of my generation, the generation that went through it during our college and early adult years, is not forgetting and is not letting their kids forget. 

So around a lunch table in Kansas City today, a bunch of eight-year-olds showed there is remembrance. Good job, parents.