Coping With Crisis

What can adults do? Plenty, psychologists say. Having children work through their feelings, whether by means of play for younger children or journals for older children, can be helpful. If, however, children are reluctant to talk about terrorism or war, let them know you are available, but don't press them. And avoid overreacting. "Don't go racing to the therapist just because they're drawing a few pictures of crashing airplanes," says Giller. Many experts advise limiting access to television news for younger children. For teenagers, they suggest parents watch the news with them and discuss it in perspective. Is biological war a real threat? Will the U.S. bombing lead to retaliation? "Kids will react to whatever messages we send them," says Jennifer Johnson, an elementary school counselor in Pasadena, Texas. "If we let them know they are safe, they will feel safe."

While children should be reassured, middle schools and high schools must deal with the realities of the war on terrorism in their curriculums. At Centreville High School in Clifton, Va., science classes are looking at such issues as, Is it possible to poison a reservoir? What does anthrax do to the human body? At Suzanne Middle School in Walnut, Calif., Alan Haskvitz interrupted his seventh-grade lesson on the Boston Tea Party to discuss the difference between civil disobedience and terrorism. "We pulled out maps," he says. "We talked about how Arabs are not necessarily Muslims and vice versa. We handed out newspapers, and for the first time, instead of just reading the sports section, they wanted to take them home."

As textbooks are revised, patriotic events staged and legions of counselors marshaled, high schools are also managing an intense need to return to what might feel normal. In New York, the High School for Leadership & Public Service, a magnet school two blocks from the World Trade Center, was forced to evacuate and wedge itself into cramped quarters at another school, three miles away. The teachers lacked books, even chalk. But principal Ada Dolch is determined to get back to basics or "kids will discuss this for the rest of their lives instead of doing math." That doesn't mean the tragedy has not become a learning opportunity. A health class is examining what kids inhaled in the explosion. In English class, they are writing about their feelings.

"It's part of our recovery," says Dolch, who lost a sister in the attack. But, she adds, "there has to come a time when we say, 'Let's move on.' Gently, but we have to move on." So American kids, in New York and elsewhere, are slowly moving on--and learning about themselves and the world along the way.