Yesterday’s horror is today’s history

Sept. 11, 2001 is one of those days in history where people remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the tragic news. Americans collectively mourned on a day when answers were hard to come by.

In schools, the news of the terrorist attacks trickled in, and students and teachers grieved together. Thirteen years later, those students have moved on. They are in college or have started careers. Many of those teachers are in the same classrooms, and have found themselves the conveyors of history to the next generation.

“They had no recollection of the day,” Seaford High School social studies teacher Linda Kratzer said of her 11th-grade American history students, who were just 2 or 3 years old when the Twin Towers fell.

On Sept. 11, Kratzer led her students to the front of the building, where Seaford’s 9/11 monument is located. It pays tribute to five graduates of the school who were killed in the attacks. She showed them the memorial that was dedicated by the Seaford 9/11 Committee, and then asked each student to place a carnation in front of one of the plaques honoring the local victims.

Before the class went downstairs, Kratzer shared the biographies of the five alumni. “These were individuals that walked the same halls, that sat in the same seats that they did,” she said.

Though the attacks occurred miles away, it affected communities near and far, including Seaford. Kratzer said it is important for her students to understand the connection to their hometown.

Michael Burns, a social studies teacher at Seaford Middle School, has had to change his approach over the years in addressing the events of the day. The eighth-grade American History teacher now has students who were not even born, or were just a few months old, when the attacks occurred.

The first few anniversaries, Burns said, was a shared experience between himself and his students. But as the years went on, they had fewer recollections of the day, and Burns truly was teaching them history.

“Even though they weren’t around at that time, it’s still part of their psyche, their mindset,” he said. “It’s not part of their actual memory. For a 13-year-old kid, 13 years ago might as well have been 100 years ago.”

Burns noted that there are many events going on in the world that are a result of Sept. 11, so the children are not completely unaware. Many have also heard recollections of the day from their parents.

While the first part of eighth-grade social studies is devoted to the Civil War era, Burns said he made sure to take a few moments out of the day on Sept. 11 to talk to the students about it. The tragedy and its ramifications are brought up in greater detail later in the year.

“You can’t go past this day without mentioning it,” he said. “Everybody who was alive and conscious that day is never going to forget it.”

Mary Ryan, a social studies teacher at the high school, shares her recollections of the day with her students. At the time, she was a middle school teacher in Hicksville.

Ryan said that when she was a child, her generation experienced a similar situation. Pearl Harbor was well before her time, but it was still an event that was known to many adults surrounding her and her peers. Sept. 11 is that event for today’s children, she noted.

In addition to talking about the day, Ryan shows them a documentary, “Man in the Red Bandana,” commemorating the final hour of a 9/11 first responder’s life. She said it is a powerful movie because it chronicles a person who comes from a close-knit community similar to Seaford.

Last year, Ryan accompanied many juniors on a Seaford 9/11 Committee-sponsored trip to the memorial at Ground Zero.

Ryan and Kratzer both agreed that they have a duty as teachers to inform students about the significance of the day. “We want to keep the memories alive,” Kratzer said, “not just of the five families, but all the people who perished that day.”

Before the morning announcements at the high school on Sept. 11, there was a moment of silence for all the victims. Principal Scott Bersin said it is important for students to pay tribute.

“Everyone in America needs to understand the events of Sept. 11,” he said, “both from a memorial perspective, as well as the point of view on understanding our future.”

The lawn of the school was covered in American flags, and the occasional resident stopped at the memorial during the day. The red, white and blue carnations gradually piled higher as more and more classes came outside.

Inside, a large plaque hangs in the lobby listing all the winners of the Patriot Award. It has been given out to five students each year in honor of the five local victims.

Bersin said it is fitting that the memorial, located outside the auditorium lobby, is at the high school. “The schools in Seaford,” he said, “are the center of the community.”