Making sense of a terrorist act

Open for discussion: In French schools, teachers are encouraging discussions on the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. — AFP

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack, French schoolchildren ponder on the country’s fundamental values of liberty, equality and fraternity.

When 9/11 happened in 2001, we didn’t have smartphones which alerted us instantly to current events. We were living in Paris then, before we had children. My husband called me on the phone and asked me to turn the TV on. I was still learning French, and watched the French news station in utter incomprehension and disbelief. It must be the trailer of a movie, I thought. It simply can’t be real.