Patriot Day! September 11th

I grew up in small-town America. Both of my grandfathers fought in the War. I have a strong sense of American pride - and always have. This day still hurts!

I was driving to Melba and it was my first year of teaching. I heard it on the news - a plane had run into the world trade center. My reaction was one of brief concern. I had a lot on my mind being a first year teacher and I was trying to find a station that had a song that I could sing to on my way to school. The last thing I wanted to hear was a tragedy. So, I quick changed the station to try and find something else, not really contemplating what had just happened. It didn't work! Each station was covering this accident - because that is what everyone thought at the time - that it was a strange and unfortunate accident. Then, I arrived at school and could find no one. Something wasn't quite right - there was no one in the office, no one on the playground. As I searched I found them huddled in front of a television in the library. And as we sat there watching the smoke billowing from the tower we witnessed a different plane fly into the second tower. I remember thinking, "that was strange, what in the world just happened?" We were eerily quiet and I remember someone saying, "this was no accident, we are begin attacked". I actually began panicking at that point because as we were talking amongst ourselves we began hearing reports of a plane flying into the pentagon and a plane down in a field in Pennsylvania. That moment changed America and me - I was 21 years old. I remember feelings of intense anger, extreme sadness and confusion. Who could possibly do this to us? Why?

What followed that day was an overwhelming unity amongst Americans. It was amazing and I'm so happy I was able to witness and be a part of it. I remember flags being flown at almost every house, people were friendlier, we came together as a country and we all cheered our military on as they left our soil to bring down those that attacked us.

11 years have passed. A lot has changed. I was able to speak about September 11th for the next few years with my 4th graders and we remembered together. Flags were still flown on that day, tears were still shed, the wounds were still fresh.

But not today! My students had no idea - they had not been born yet.

And so how do I talk to a group of students about why we need to remember this day? I still remember vividly how it all happened and how I felt. How do I explain to a generation that wasn't even around how deeply this day affects me and the country they live in? They don't know how America felt that day, they don't understand how we could be so sad about something that happened 11 years ago. They don't realize that because of that day we began a war that we are continually fighting to this day. 

I discovered that all I could do without going into gruesome detail is make sure they were aware that we were attacked, it hurt us deeply, we retaliated with the best of our military and now the person responsible for those attacks is no longer alive to hurt us. I then spent small moments of our day discussing what makes America great and how proud we should be to live here.

 Each September 11th the school remembers. This year we braved the chilly wind and ventured outside to hear the High School students do a presentation. We listened to the choir sing the Star Spangled Banner, watched the flag be presented and flown by the boy scouts, heard the eloquent speeches from some of our High School students and also listened to a beautiful and touching song sung by a few High School girls. It was a great way to remember that day! 

On this day I was proud to be an American, I was proud of my second graders and their ability to be full of respect on this day that they know little about, I was proud of our school taking much treasured time out of our day to remember.

It's been 11 years . . . . I still remember.

My second graders looking at the flag!

Making an America flag and writing about what they love about living in America!

Busy at work!

Displayed! and Proud!