(From : The Students with Bush on 9/11: The Interrupted Reading)http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110504/us_time/08599206932700
Seven-year-olds can't understand what Islamic terrorism is all about. But they know when an adult's face is telling them something is wrong - and none of the students sitting in Sandra Kay Daniels' class at Emma E. Booker Elementary School that morning can forget the devastating change in Bush's expression when White House chief of staff Andrew Card whispered the terrible news of the al-Qaeda attack. Lazaro Dubrocq's heart started racing because he assumed they were all in trouble - with no less than the Commander in Chief - but he wasn't sure why. "In a heartbeat, he leaned back and he looked flabbergasted, shocked, horrified," recalls Dubrocq, now 17. "I was baffled. I mean, did we read something wrong? Was he mad or disappointed in us?"
Similar fears started running through Mariah Williams' head. "I don't remember the story we were reading - was it about pigs?" says Williams, 16. "But I'll always remember watching his face turn red. He got really serious all of a sudden. But I was clueless. I was just 7. I'm just glad he didn't get up and leave, because then I would have been more scared and confused." Chantal Guerrero, 16, agrees. Even today, she's grateful that Bush regained his composure and stayed with the students until The Pet Goat was finished. "I think the President was trying to keep us from finding out," says Guerrero, "so we all wouldn't freak out."
(skipped paragraphs)
One thing the students would like to tell Bush's critics - like liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, whose 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 911 disparaged Bush for lingering almost 10 minutes with the students after getting word that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center - is that they think the President did the right thing. "I think he was trying to keep everybody calm, starting with us," says Guerrero. Dubrocq agrees: "I think he was trying to protect us." Booker Principal Gwendolyn Tose-Rigell, who died in 2007, later insisted, "I don't think anyone could have handled it better. What would it have served if [Bush] had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?"
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My response:
That was the point of Bush not leaving right away, he didn't want the kids to panic! If Bush did leave, the same exact critics would've accussed him of causing the kids to panic!
Most of those critics probably have ZERO experience leading a classroom full of young children!
You got to remember, teaching little children is MEGA-DIFFERENT than teaching college students!
You can't expect little kids to have the same level of emotional reaction to a crisis that an adult would!
Not only that, these kids at school are in a large group of kids, a situation that MAGNIFIES any negative emotional reaction a kid might have! This is common sense to anyone who worked with a large group of kids!
Those critics are professional haters! That's all they are!
Those critics are professional haters! That's all they are!
While I don't agree with all of Bush's action as president, I still think Bush handled that situation the best he could, and his critics over-reacted.
