9/11 memories become history lesson

HURLEY - With Sunday marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorists' attack, several area teachers taught lesson plans Friday centered on the day's events to students with little to no memory of the tragedy.

Hurley history teacher Chris Kelly began each class by offering a brief overview lecture, followed by a handful of questions students had to answer about the day using an online interactive site providing a timeline and other information about that morning.

"This is a junior class (in first hour)," Kelly told the Daily Globe "But for them, most of them were just getting out of cribs when 9/11 happened. The freshmen that I'll have third and fourth hour, this is the first group to come through where 9/11 is truly a historical event - they weren't even born when 9/11 happened."

Kelly also told students about how gas stations in the area had wait times as long as an hour as cars filled up on gas as residents weren't sure what would happen to prices in the days after the tragedy. He also described the uncertainty among teachers about what happened as they gathered to watch television coverage.

"(Scott Erickson) stuck his head out of (his room) and he goes, 'They just blew up the World Trade Center,'" Kelly recalled. "Now, no understanding that it was a plane. When things happen, you had no idea what the heck was actually happening."

He said the teachers kept their televisions on throughout the day as students had questions about what happened.

Following the introduction, Kelly showed his classes parts of the documentary, "102 Minutes that Changed America."

The documentary is comprised almost entirely of amateur footage filmed by various New Yorkers, providing an essentially real-time view of the period between the plane hitting the first tower and the collapse of the two towers.

He impressed upon the students the significance of the World Trade Center and how close it was to Wall Street.

"The World Trade Center does represent the financial center of not only the United States, but of the world," Kelly told his students.

He also told them how the day changed people's perceptions of things and how much of the current political news can be traced to Sept. 11.

As the years have passed, Kelly said he has seen students become less tied to 9/11.

"As more and more time goes on, it becomes less and less real to them. I think those kids who were going through school, it really had an impact on them. It really raised the level of patriotism in them, that some kids don't understand - it's not the same level," Kelly told the Daily Globe, adding the country as a whole has gotten away from the levels of patriotism and unity that marked the weeks following Sept. 11.

Kelly said he hopes the students will find something in his lesson that leads them to explore the day on their own.

"The big key is you hope to find things that will interest kids so that they know something and then they know how to find more," he said. "So even with these questions (that were assigned) ... everybody takes different steps to be able to find the things that interest them."