High School teachers discuss educating a new generation about 9/11

As the nation nears the 20 year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a new generation that was born after the tragedy occurred is making its way through high school. Teachers and schools are finding different ways to teach these students about the recent history.

At Twin Rivers High School R-X, all students were given the same lesson during their advisory period on Wednesday morning. The lesson included a reading about the event over the intercom by four students, reading a firsthand account from a Juilliard freshman who played his violin for the 69 regime of the Coast Guard in the days after the event and watching a video of photos from 9/11.

English and drama teacher Josh Hancock helped find several readings, Principal Misti Lovelace said, before she decided which two would be used.

Hancock said at this point the event is like he’s doing a history lesson to the students because they don’t have memories of it. He compared it to covering other noteable historical events such as the Holocaust, WWII, and the Vietnam War. During his class on Wednesday, students said they first learned about 9/11 in early elementary schools, but didn’t start to really understand what happened until about fifth grade.

“I think it’s so important for them to learn about,” he said. “It’s always such important topics. It feels like you never want them to forget true history. It’s so important.”

Hancock said he does see students responding to the images and stories he shares — some with shock and surprise, but most find it humbling like he said it was to live through it.

At the beginning of the class period, junior Karson Hull and seniors Bella Galloway, Madison Lampe and Miller Gerkhe read over the intercom a general summary of members of al-Qaida hijacking four planes, two crashing into the World Trade Center, the third crashing into the Pentagon and the last landing in the Pennsylvania countryside. They also provided a timeline of events, addressed those first responders and average civilians who worked to help at the incident sites and some of the questions that have been answered since the attack.

After saying the Pledge of Allegiance, Hancock read the story ‘Playing for the Fighting Sixty-Ninth’ by William Harvey, who was a freshman at Juilliard in New York City when the attacks happened. In the story, which he wrote and sent to his family in Indianapolis, Indiana shortly after. In the story, Harvey talks about being one of the music students who went to play music for the first responders in the days after the attacks and how it felt to see the National Guard members as they returned to the Armory after a day of going through the rubble. Harvey played alone well into the night before being shown around the War Room and one of the colonels presented him with a coin of the regiment, which is presented to those who have done something special for the regiment.

Hancock said he remembers being in sixth grade when the attacks happened, the response he saw from the community around him and how it was taught in school. He shared some of his experiences with the class of seeing people in Poplar Bluff going to donate blood as a way to help the victims. Localizing this historical event, he said, is the most important part because it helps the students realize that 9/11 impacted people all over the country.

“Unfortunately in an actual typical history class you don’t always get to such modern times, but I think that on Semptember 11 we’ve always taken the time to actually spend that day discussing what Semptember 11 was whether it was in your history class or maybe English,” he said. “It always seemed like it was integrated. I feel like schools have always done a good job of designating time or maybe having an assembly. When I was in sixth grade when it actually happened, for weeks afterward we would gather around the flag pole in the morning, say the Pledge of Allegiance. We’d sing songs and do things like that together.”

Meanwhile, over at Poplar Bluff High School, world history teacher Gail Rosmarin was educating her students with similar tactics. Both teachers used pictures and news coverage from the events as well as stories from those in New York City at the time of the attacks.

Rosmarin started by defining what a patriot is before asking the students what they know about 9/11. Students were able to give her a general idea response of it being a terrorist attack that hit the twin towers and the Pentagon.

She also asked students if there’s anything that’s happened in their life time that they can compare it to. The two main answers were the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and the stories of school shootings over the years.

Rosmarin used a variety of different sources, sharing different stories in each of her classes based on what she thought the students in each class would respond to. In one, she shared a StoryCorps from NPR of a man working security at the Dulles International Airport helping Flight 77, which is the one that crashed into the Pentagon, and assisted two of the hijackers board. In another class, she showed part of a documentary from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum telling the story of a man who was staying in the hotel that was between the twin towers and the firefighter who helped him get out. Rosmarin also showed C-SPAN and news footage from throughout the day.

She said the students not remembering the attack makes teaching it more of a challenge because there’s so much behind it. Rosmarin teaches juniors, which she said can also make it more challenging because they haven’t had American history since they were freshmen.

“Teaching history gets more challenging because time goes on,” she said. “You have to kind of pick and choose, not just the topics but also how much time you’re going to spend on each topic. A lot of that is guided by our state standards. When I first started teaching, you had students who were like ‘oh, I was in fourth grade’ but last year I started realizing that we’re getting to that part where they don’t have any prior knowledge besides maybe they read a book.”

Rosmarin said she keeps a folder of resources on 9/11 with different news clips, personal stories and articles talking about it so that she has a collection to pull from each year — with more getting added each year as well.

“They’re constantly updating things as more and more people are more open about what happened that day,” she said.