Teaching September 11 in the schools

As Samantha McKevitt’s seventh-grade social studies students settled into their desks last Friday at Jonas Salk Middle School, they prepared to talk about a topic on the mind of most Americans that day — the 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The students, mostly dressed in combinations of red, white and blue, were asked by McKevitt to write down what they knew about Sept. 11. They then discussed how the attacks changed America.

As seventh-graders are just beginning a two-year American history curriculum, they have barely begun to study Colonial times, let alone an event less than two decades old. But on the anniversary of an important date in history, McKevitt, like her colleagues in Levittown and other school districts, deviated from the lesson plan.

“They’re going to encounter it in the news. They’re going to be bombarded with images,” McKevitt said, about the importance of holding a discussion that day with students who were born two years after the attacks.

Steve Costello, the district’s director of social studies, said teachers are encouraged to bring up topics when relevant to current events, even if it means an interruption from the regular curriculum.

How Sept. 11 is discussed depends on the grade level, he said. At the elementary level, teachers give broad background on the day, the impact it has had on today’s society, and the importance of coming together and supporting each other. High school students have more in-depth conversations about the politics behind the tragedy and the events that have taken place as a result of the attacks.

Costello was a social studies teacher at MacArthur High School when the attacks occurred, and two students there lost a parent. So did a sixth-grader at Salk, as well as children in the elementary schools. Most students in the district today, with the exception of upper-grade high-school students, weren’t yet born on Sept. 11, 2001. “We’ve always been sensitive to what the reality is for us at that point,” Costello said of how the topic is broached each year. “It is a shifting reality.”

Michael Randazzo, 12, a student in McKevitt’s social studies class, said he learned of the attacks from his parents and siblings, who were all alive when it happened. “They told me a lot about it,” he said. “It was very sad when I was learning about it.”

He said he liked the opportunity to discuss the events in class and share his feelings. The Seaford resident also said he wished he had a chance to see the Twin Towers stand.

Rachel Jorgensen, 11, said she has traditionally watched a Sept. 11 documentary with her father every year, but learned even more about the tragedy through last week’s class discussion. She and Michael both said they understand that their experiences in learning about the attacks are vastly different from the adults they know who lived through it.

Most students in McKevitt’s class said they first started learning about Sept. 11 in second or third grade. As part of last week’s discussion, she played Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),” a song written in October 2001, then had students analyze the song.

She also asked them how they could honor Sept. 11. Responses included going to a local remembrance ceremony, posting a picture of a flag on social media, putting a flag up at their home, or observing a moment of silence. All of Salk went quiet that day during second period, around the time the planes hit the towers.

McKevitt said there are also tangible reminders of the tragedy — monuments dedicated to the victims of the attacks throughout the area — that bring the tragedy home for students.

Costello said that all students in the district are encouraged to make service pledges and find small ways to make a difference in their school or community. “That’s how we try to make the best of it, how we try to turn this tragedy into something motivational for our students,” he said.

Make a pledge in Wantagh

On Sept. 11, Wantagh High School’s General Organization encouraged all students and teachers to sign an “I Will” pledge banner, vowing to do a good deed in their school or community. Co-president Brendan von Runnen said it could be as simple as joining a club. “We want people in the school to get involved in the school,” he said.

Von Runnen said that Sept. 11, or Patriot Day, is about remembering those who died as a resultt of the attacks, and also pledging to do good in society. This is the second year that Wantagh has done the “I Will” pledges and he is hoping it carries on for years to come.

While General Organization officers were encouraging their classmates to do good, teachers in Wantagh were discussing the events of Sept. 11 with students. Chris Widmann, the supervisor of social studies, said each teacher was encouraged to find their own way of talking about it.

“There are some students who were young and really don’t have a full recollection of it,” he said. “When you look at some of those videos and images, you’d be surprised that some of the kids may not have seen it before.”

Widmann said that teachers generally stay away from the graphic images, and instead lead discussions about how and why the attacks happened, and the changes that resulted from it. “I would say that the term ‘9/11’ has become part of our vernacular,” he said about the importance of discussing it in school. “For many of these kids, our country has been at war for almost their whole lives. It’s really the longest war in our country’s history.”

Wantagh Middle School sixth-grade teacher Valentina Gatti’s students made connections between George W. Bush’s televised speech after the attacks and President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech. Third-grade students at Forest Lake Elementary School read Mordecai Gerstein’s “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” and also wrote letters of appreciation to local emergency service workers to be delivered to the Wantagh Fire Department.

Memorial visits in Seaford

Seaford High School is home to the community’s Sept. 11 memorial, in honor of the five alumni who died in the attacks. Throughout the day, many classes visited the monument outside the auditorium and some laid carnations in front.

New York City Firefighter Ed Fulford was out front and spoke to the students about his best friend, Tommy Haskell, one of the five graduates killed that day.

Social studies teacher Linda Kratzer said each teacher decides how much time they wish to devote to a Sept. 11 discussion in class. In having students who were too young to remember the attacks, she talks about how the day changed life for all Americans. Her classes also engaged in conversation about the current political climate at home and abroad.

Kratzer also told her students about the five alumni from Seaford before they went down to the memorial. “As part of the Seaford community,” she said, “we have a deep commitment to honor those community members that were lost on that day.”