Resilient Students

So... I am back from a 3-day trip with 21-8th graders to Washington, DC.  It normally takes me about 2-weeks to recuperate from this trip.

We walked about 23 miles on the trip.  Yes, most of it was up hill.  We saw upwards of 22 sites, monuments, memorials, and museums.

I am beat.

With all of that walking, yes-that takes its toll. But the responsibility that it takes is what wears me down.  I worry about the kids and their welfare 24/7.

Well, this year...we had an incident.  We were within 100 feet of a shooting in front of the White House.  We later realized that it was a suicide.  It was surreal.  The kids saw the body drop to the ground. The mass running from the shooting felt like it was from a movie. Scary.

Some kids were crying. Some were confused.  Some were scared. And...we all were in disbelief that such a thing just happened.

After some talking, we moved on.  We went back to our busy schedule and learned, had some fun, and laughed.

Kids are resilient.  They are amazing.  And...they are starting to get too used to the violent world that we live in. ( I will talk more about this in another post)

I am glad we are back. We are safe.  We are smarter. We are tired. We will forever remember being together when this happened.

Be Mindful.

Peace.

Mark Levine

#Mindfulliteracy
@LevineWrites