Remembering...

It's hard to believe that this Sunday is the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  Sometimes the attacks seem like a lifetime ago.  Some days it feels like it just happened.
 
I will never forget getting the phone call in my classroom from the office a little before 9:00 that morning in 2001.  A member of the office staff said, "Renee, something is happening in New York City.  A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.  You better turn on the television."  I turned on NBC as Matt Lauer was trying to decipher why a plane had hit the World Trade Center North Tower.  They were discussing the event as an accident.  Just about a minute after I turned on the coverage for my Advanced Placement U.S. History class to watch, the second tower was hit.  We all collectively gasped.  This was obviously not an accident.
 

Some students began to cry while others were stunned into absolute silence.  Some of them asked me, "Why is this happening, Mrs. Hood?  Who would do this?"  I, of course, had no idea.  I can still see their faces in my memory.  They needed answers and I couldn't give them any (an uncomfortable position for a teacher).  Throughout that awful day, the class bells rang and students filed in and out of my room.  They just sat in silence and watched the events unfold. 
Some cried.... 
Some were angry and voiced words of revenge.... 
Some slept because they didn't know how else to handle it....
I just watched and cried with them as the towers collapsed and New York City was thrown into chaos.  I couldn't help but flash back to my senior year when I visited NYC, including the World Trade Center Towers.  I had stood in that building, and so had some of my students. 

All of the students were sad.
All had unanswerable questions.
All were affected.

We, as Americans, were all shaped by the tragedy of 9/11, as we have been by many other historical events.  I would give anything to be able to have another conversation with my grandparents about the Great Depression and WWII.  My mother can tell me everything about the moment she heard on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot.  I remember watching the Challenger disaster on a black and white television in the BBS cafeteria in 1986 with my classmates.  And so on , and so on.... 
   
I would like to ask that the parents who read this blog share something from that day with your children this Sunday.  It doesn't have to be a deep, philosophical, political discussion.  In fact, it probably shouldn't be.  Just share where you were, how you found out, how you felt, what you were thinking....  Ask them what they know about it.  The seniors would only have been about seven or eight years old, so most of the high school students should have very little memory of that day.  I'm sure much of the horrible details were kept from them because they were so young. 

The events of 9/11 will always be available online for these students to watch and many of the questions about that day are now answered for them. But, what they are possibly missing is the personal touch that you can provide.  Your history.  You may think they never listen to you, but they will listen to this.  Someday they will even tell their children about where you were when the 9/11 attacks happened.  Your memories will become their memories.

I pray the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks find some peace this weekend.  I know millions will be lifting them and this country up in prayer as we remember together.

--Renee Hood--