9/11 at school

Today is September 11th 2013. The twelfth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As many of you know, I am a high school teacher. Many of my friends ask if I was going to talk about 9/11 with my classes today. I told them all NO. I said that 9/11 happened 12 years ago. Many of my students were 1-4 years old at the time and wouldn't remember it anyway. I told them that if we all spend a day remembering 9/11 then the people that work every day to disrupt American life have won, our students waste a day of class discussing 9/11. It is something that should be done in history classes. Not the agriculture classes Mr. Swifty Morgan teaches.

Then I went to school and got to thinking.

My students hear the same stories from adults about what happened that day, but they never get to hear what it was like as a sixth grader.

I told my class that I was in sixth grade in September of 2001, and that my sixth grade teacher got a phone call that something 'bad had happened'. So we turned on the TV. My teacher calmly explained that the smoke from the first tower was likely a bomb set off by terrorists. When the sixth grade mind (in 2001) hears the word terrorist, they have no idea what that means. So my quick on her feet sixth grade teacher told us that sometimes when a new president takes office people go out and create problems to test him. They make bad things happen to see how he will respond.

Then the second plane hit and our teacher turned it off and told us that we needed to get back to work. About that time I went to the gifted and talented room where we proceeded to leave the TV on the news all day long.

By 2:45 when I left school I had seen everything live. 2nd plane crash, towers collapse, everything.

What I was able to share with my students was the things I saw and how it felt to be a kid at that time in American history.

I talked about how the sky was silent. Growing up near an international airport and suddenly hearing no planes was quite noticeable. I emphasized that ALL air traffic was stopped.

I also talked about remembering that America seemed to be a much more God fearing country than it was today. The evening of the 11th some important leaders stood on the steps of the capitol and sang 'God bless America'. This was on live TV! I feel that today this would never be broadcasted or even sang.

I talked about how for MONTHS after the attack most vacant billboards, and those signs businesses have to advertise specials all said 'God Bless America'. I talked about how in the year after 9/11 it was a different America. People prayed in schools, people valued family more, people felt the loss and clung to what was good. Today at my school, the principal forgot the moment of silence. (We have one every day).

I talked to my students about how in the months after 9/11 our government appeared to function much more efficiently and how we should all be embarrassed that it takes such a large tragedy to get over the left wing and right wing differences.

I told my students that many people today still suffer from the effects of 9/11, but emotionally and physically. Many police officers and firemen who were not killed at the scene, but worked ground zero have developed cancers and are rapidly dying due to the chemicals and fumes they exposed themselves to in the attempt to save lives.

One of my students asked me to talk about the New World Order and their involvement in the events. I told him that today was about remembering the victims and that he should avoid falling prey to the many smooth talking you-tube videos and radio hosts that claim 9/11 was staged or planned by our leaders.

One of my students then asked if I thought Bush did a good job with it. I told him yes. I told him that all of our country did a great job responding to 9/11. I told him that when I visited ground zero in January 2011, it was so much more real to me after seeing the new construction and the memorials. NYC was not just some far away place on TV, but I had walked the streets where people were running away from falling buildings, where firemen sat and cried knowing their best friends were killed as the building was falling. I told him our country showed great restraint by not unleashing a hell of firepower upon the people that caused this. We could have completely destroyed entire countries harboring terrorists. Instead we chose the more difficult and costly task of fighting the terrorists and not the innocent people. I told him to remember that it was not the country of Iraq or Afghanistan that attacked us, but a select group of people within those countries, and we are still a country at war. Never forget we STILL have boots on the ground, actively fighting the war on terror.

Then the bell rang.