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But most of all, people remember injustices. False accusations of cheating. Getting singled out randomly for scolding. Points deducted on a cheap technicality. As a teacher myself, I vowed I’d do better, that I’d run a fair classroom where every student got a voice and a straight deal.

The asymmetries of the classroom are intense. With each teacher responsible for a hundred students or more, the typical kid occupies a teacher’s thoughts for—at best—a minute or two per day. But each student only has a handful of teachers. Every instructor looms large in her world, wielding power over her days, via class periods; her nights, via homework; and her future, via grades. She spends much of her time thinking about the teacher’s demands, the teacher’s expectations, the teacher’s preferences and inconsistencies.

So when a teacher briefly focuses attention on a particular student, it comes with the heat and intensity of a spotlight. A moment the teacher barely remembers might stick with the student for years.

In the hours since the shooting, politicians and the media have universally condemned the gunmen as "terrorists" and called their actions "terrorism." And for good reason, too: the killing of unarmed civilians for apparently political or religious reasons is the classic definition of terrorism.

2011 Norway attacks, where a white right-wing extremist and racist named Anders Breivik killed 77 people during a rampage through Oslo and a nearby summer camp.

If Breivik's name were "Omar" and he said that he acted in the name of Islam as opposed to "Europe" and Christianity, I doubt people like Michael Morell would forget who he is or what he did.