Teaching 9/11 to those too young to remember

LYNN – Zach Johnson?s former boss?s daughter died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks and a good friend witnessed the destruction, but Johnson?s conversations today about those events 13 years ago will be mostly with people who have no memory of the fear, horror and loss.Johnson teaches social studies and government at Classical High School and, along with other teachers, takes time on every anniversary of the terror attacks to educate students about what happened on that Tuesday morning with its perfect blue sky.?A lot of my sophomores were born in 1998. It?s easy for them to glom on to urban legends about that day. A lot won?t dig into factual sources to see what happened. We fight back on that,” he said.For Classical?s 1,400 students enrolled in social studies or similar courses, September typically means studying historical periods like the Enlightenment, pre-revolutionary America and the Reconstruction.Johnson will briefly set those topics aside today at the front of his classroom as slide images of Sept. 11 and the voices of people who died that day and witnessed death play across a video screen.He was traveling in Holland the morning the attacks occurred and wondered why Dutch citizens were clustered around televisions inside shops and stores.?We watched the second tower come down,” he said.His friend Matt Gravin worked in a building next to the World Trade complex and was with co-workers who saw the attack unfold.?He recalled his boss, pale-faced, running and saying, ?Everyone out,?” Johnson said.Gravin survived the attack, but Johnson?s former boss?s daughter worked on a Trade Center floor located above where terrorists steered the airliners into the skyscrapers.Johnson said looking at the factual events that occurred on Sept. 11 helps students talk about the day with adults who remember the television coverage or endured losses.?It?s tough to teach about; it?s emotional – I get choked up,” he said.Johnson and fellow teachers work to connect the Sept. 11 attacks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other global events leading directly up to current violence in Iraq. The connection, he said, often sparks a moment of enlightenment for students.?To me, it?s important to connect those events to what is happening today,” he said. “For students, once we lay that out, they are kind of blown away by it.”