This Child's Perspective

A few days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks I received a call from Jona’s art teacher asking me to please stop by to discuss his behavior in art class that day. Jona loved art class and the art teacher as well, and never had any kind of behavior problem in art. I was confused.

When I arrived at the school I found myself walking down hallways lined with children’s drawings of 9/11. I met the teacher and she took me to where the pictures made by Jona’s class were displayed.

“You know I think Jonathon is just the best!” she began.

"Uh-huh”, I acknowledged while scanning the drawings of airplanes and fire trucks, towers and flames, and not finding one with Jona’s name on it.

“You won’t find it,” she informed me. “It’s not there. I don’t know what happened! He just refused to do the assignment! He kept saying, ‘Mrs. N, I AM drawing 9/11’ but look! Here is what he did!”

She looked very frazzled as she thrust the picture towards me.

When Jona joined us, he insisted “Mom, I DID draw 9/11” and the art teacher threw her hands in the air.

“Ok", I acknowledged, looking carefully at the rows of people he had drawn and noting that every person in the drawing was crying. “Tell me about it.”

Jona looked up at me stone-faced and quietly said, “Those are all the children whose parents died.”