Sierra Young, left, Kinzie McTaggart and Livia Nieves hold up their colored paper sheets as they join their classmates at Pawnee Grade School to create a living flag Friday, September 9, 2011. The school originally made a living flag to mark the first anniversary of the September 11, 2011 attacks on the football field at the high school. Rainy weather on Friday moved the event inside the school.(Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register)
Students in Sister Philip Neri Crawford’s current events class at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School were only 6 or 7 years old when two airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers.
And like students at other area schools learning about the significance of those attacks 10 years later, time and perspective has made a difference.
“Because they were so young, the reality of 9/11 at that time, it didn’t mean anything to them then,” Crawford said. “But I think it’s our challenge to make sure that they understand today what 9/11 represents.”
Crawford’s class wasn’t alone Friday as students in area schools marked the 9/11 anniversary. In Pawnee, students created a living flag, and classes focusing on the terrorist attacks were held at several schools in the Springfield School District.
At SHG, Crawford gathered her class in the school’s chapel and read the book " 14 Cows for America ,” which tells the story of a young man who returns to his Kenyan village from New York City with news of the 9/11 attacks.
His story prompts the village to give a touching gift to America.
When she finished reading the book, Crawford talked about the significance of the attacks.
“Remember, on 9/11 it didn’t take weapons of mass destruction to destroy those Twin Towers or to strike the Pentagon,” she said, citing also “the heroic sacrifice of the passengers on another plane who sacrificed their lives in order to prevent that plane crashing into the White House.
“All of those people who sacrificed their lives, that cannot be in vain.”
Abigale Millburg, 17, a senior in Crawford’s class, said she’s learned a lot in the last decade.
“I can’t believe it’s 10 years because it seems just like yesterday,” she said. “The pain and the anger is still here, but … I learned how to deal with it. I’ve learned a lot more from my parents and how to deal with people who don’t like us.”
Millburg, who was home-schooled at the time, was in the second grade when the attacks happened.
“I remember getting a call from my grandma saying, ‘Turn on the TV,’ so my mom and I went in and we turned it on, and it was at that time when the plane was hitting the second building,” she said. “I remember feeling numb, like I can’t believe we’re getting attacked. I remember my mom saying, we’ve got to call our dad. It felt like the world was coming to an end, almost.”
Ryan Fleckenstein, 17, also a senior, said his parents didn’t shelter him from coverage of the attacks. They wanted him to fully experience what was going on.
“Being in second grade, I didn’t know exactly what they meant, but when I got home it was all over television,” he said. “I think it was more, back then, the feeling that we should get some kind of retribution, some kind of revenge or something.
“But now that I’ve learned a lot more about it, I feel like we’ve done the right things so far, fighting, trying to find justice, and I think that we’re doing a very good job of finding the justice that we’ve been fighting for.”
Pawnee Grade School students created a living flag inside the school’s gymnasium Friday. According to principal Linda Cline, Pawnee had a similar event to commemorate the first anniversary of 9/11 in 2002.
“This had been done in 2002 because the school was trying to do something in memory of 9/11,” she said. “A young boy was writing in a journal for an English teacher, and he said we should really do something in memory of all the lives lost in the tragedy of 9/11.”
That boy, Adam Marks, returned Friday to talk to the young children — most of whom were not born when the attacks happened — about 9/11.
“They will remember when they get older that they were involved in this,” Cline said. “We talk a lot in our school about our Pawnee family and how we treat each other. We’re trying to keep them aware that when bad things happen to people, we’re there to support each other.”
Teachers at Lanphier High School taught 9/11-related lessons Friday and plan to teach more Monday, according to Pete Sherman, spokesman for the Springfield School District.
The lessons incorporate literacy skills with a timeline of the attacks and various articles. There will also be video clips and a slideshow.
Teachers also encouraged Lanphier students to participate in the Day of Remembrance/Day of Service that President Barack Obama established. When students return to school Monday, they will be asked to report what acts of kindness they performed.
Washington Middle School also taught an enrichment tutorial about the attacks on Tuesday and Thursday, Sherman said.
Copyright 2011 The State Journal-Register. Some rights reserved
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