Educators Say The Stories Of 9/11 Best Way To Teach The Next Generation
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WHEELING - It has been a quarter-century and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America are truly history.
The events are being discussed in history classes, even though there are now history teachers in school who weren't born before Sept. 11, or were too young to be cognizant of the emergency at that time.
Alex Dunlevy, 25, is in his second year of teaching social studies and personal finance at Wheeling Park High School. He was only 1 month old when the attacks took place.
His father, current Elm Grove Elementary School Principal Richard Dunlevy, was a Wheeling Park High history teacher at the time.
"My dad was teaching here on 9/11," the younger Dunlevy said. "I got stories from him of what happened on that day - of kids getting called out of class when their parents came to pick them up, of everyone watching the news on televisions in the classroom.
"He told me he went home and watched the news the rest of the night with me in his arms."
The stories inspired Dunlevy to want to research history and someday become a history teacher. It was also notable to him that his father served as a volunteer firefighter.
"I have also always been into sports," Dunlevy continued. "I've watched the video of President (George W.) Bush throwing out the pitch after 9/11 and saw the unity there was in the country.
"It brought everybody together. Nobody cared if Bush was a Republican or a Democrat. All that mattered was America, and people cared about the country."
He doesn't believe his students today always recognize the significance of 9/11.
"That's why it is so important when 9-11 comes around that we reteach it, and make sure those we lost are never forgotten," Dunlevy said.
He approaches the lesson by showing students videos of what happened that day, and how terrorists came to board and hijack the American planes involved in the attacks.
"I also show interviews with off-duty firefighters who got in cars and went to ground zero that day," Dunlevy added. "They see clips and interviews to give them perspective.
"The response is varied. Some are shocked that something like that could happen. Others are scared or sad that something like that happened on U.S. soil and so many lost their lives in a matter of hours."
Another history teacher at WPHS, Ryan Stanton, was among the students sitting in the classroom on that day in 2001. He believes that telling students of his experience that day helps him to better connect with students understanding the emotion of the attacks.
"They weren't born yet, and they never lived through anything like that," Stanton said. "On 9/11, we will talk about what it was like that day and I will tell them my stories. It gets their full attention."
He remembers that, on 9/11, information on the attacks spread by word of mouth throughout the school, and many students and teachers were watching the events unfold together on televisions at the school.
Stanton said he points out to today how noisy school buildings typically are.
"Once we learned about it (the attacks) that day, there was total silence," he continued. "No one talked in the building. I try to have students imagine that."
There were also no cell phones that day that students and parents could use to call each other, he continued.
"The school is in charge of keeping us calm and informing us. It was just a very quiet day at school," he added.
Stanton tells today's students when they go home, not to hesitate to ask their parents or grandparents about their experiences on that day.
"It is important to talk about it," Stanton continued. "My students are kind of new (to 9/11), but when I talk about how I was sitting where they are that day they listen.
"It makes me relatable to students that I was in their shoes at one time. They appreciate the story and honesty I have about it."
A big difference today is if attacks on America were to happen, the public would get immediate news alerts on their phones.
"Very quickly, we will know," Stanton said. "Then, the schools were totally in control of when students knew about the attacks.
"I don't know what we would do. Maybe we would let them have their phones to communicate with their parents?"
Retired Bellaire High School civics teacher Mike Dossie also vividly remembers the events of 9/11 as they unfolded at the school. The school had only days before started its year following a major renovation project, and none of the school's televisions were yet hooked up to cable. He was teaching his second period government class.
"I can still tell you several of those kids in that class," Dossie said. "(Principal Mike Sherwood) came up and told of the first attack.
"I had an old radio in my room. We put it on and listened to the second tower coming down. We couldn't even imagine what it was like."
It was an experience he shared with his students then, one he doesn't think today students could understand.
"If you weren't involved that day, you don't understand it," he explained. "If you weren't born yet or a little kid, you don't understand it.
"Look at what it's done. It has changed our lives a lot."
When people get on airplanes, many still have reservations about flying, Dossie continued.
"And you didn't have the division you had now," he said. "If that would happen again, the question is would the country go back to being unified? And for how long."
Dossie was asked if he were teaching today how he might approach 9/11 with the students.
"I don't know, but not from books," he said. "They need contact with people who were there. I would probably ask some of the kids who were in my second period government class to come in and speak."