How Long Island teachers are educating younger generations about 9/11 attacks

Where were you on Sept. 11, 2001?

For many years, this was a common question New Yorkers and other Americans asked each other when discussing the tragic attacks that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people.

But after 25 years, today's young students can’t answer that question. Teachers on Long Island say the task of educating this new generation about what happened on that sunny Tuesday morning now falls to them.

"For the generation that lived through 9/11, it was a day that will live in infamy," said Alan Singer, professor emeritus of teaching, learning and technology at Hofstra University. "But for [younger] people, it may not. So the question then becomes, what do we want kids to learn about 9/11?"

Educators across the Island have taken different approaches over the years to make sure students will never forget the attacks.

In West Islip, the district retired the football jerseys of former students who died during the attacks. In Hempstead, elementary school students focus on lessons of kindness, courage and acts of service in honor of the first responders who helped others that day. And in East Islip, high school athletes this year will wear red bandannas in honor of Welles Crowther, an equities trader who saved the lives of at least 18 people during the attacks.

While every district has its own way of teaching about 9/11 and its aftermath, many educators said lessons often focus on the heroism displayed by average citizens as well as the unity that came in the days after.

With older students, educators said they also explore the aftermath of the attacks, from the war on terrorism to the illnesses suffered by many of the first responders who worked at Ground Zero.

"We want them to take away not only the knowledge of what happened, but also the lasting impact on our country," said Erica Indenbaum, coordinator of social studies for the Bethpage school district.

'Still an open wound'

Indenbaum witnessed that impact firsthand.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Indenbaum was a junior at Binghamton University. She said she was preparing for her first class of the day when she received a phone call from her mother urging her to tune in to the news.

"I remember turning on the news when the second tower was hit and watching it live, and thinking that this was an event that was going to certainly shape our world, but it was [also] going to be something I was going to have to teach about," she recalled.

After college, Indenbaum came home to Long Island and began teaching in the Bethpage district in 2006. While she did not have a direct connection to anyone who died during the attacks, she had students who did.

"It's still an open wound for a lot of people in our community, and I believe that that's why it's so important to remember and also to understand the impact not only that the event had, but the empathy, the resilience and the unity and community that developed as a result of this tragic event," she said.

In preparation for the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Indenbaum, along with Andrew Choi, the district’s director of technology, worked with four current and former students on an oral history project to document the stories of those who lived through that day.

The students interviewed more than two dozen school staffers, from educators who were teaching in New York City schools as the events unfolded to security personnel who were working as city police officers or firefighters when the towers came down.

The project was planned, filmed and edited throughout last school year. It will be shared with students throughout the district on Sept. 11 this year, Indenbaum said.

The students who worked on the project said the experience gave them deeper insight into the tragedy.

Casey Christensen, 16, said she had learned about Sept. 11 through movies, personal accounts and other sources. The interviews gave her a stronger perspective, she said.

"Having a day dedicated to interviewing firsthand accounts kind of helped me understand the full scope, especially the later effects," she said.

Indenbaum said the impacts of 9/11 have shaped the lives of kids today.

"When you go to get on a plane at the airport, you have to take off your shoes, or you have to go through security at a concert," she said. "It's important for our kids to understand that historical events have shaped how they live their lives."

Luke Baumbach, 17, said he believes the documentary will help preserve these important stories for years to come.

"I think it’s important for our generation and kids my age to understand that even though we were not alive during the events ... we still have a responsibility to remember it and learn from people, like teachers and people in the community, who did," he said.

Sharing her father's story

Local educators said newspaper articles, YouTube clips and other artifacts are main sources used to teach about the Sept. 11 attacks. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan also provides educators with lesson plans, workshops and other tools.

Nicole Honovich, a social studies teacher at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station, said the story of her father, who worked for the Port Authority police, helps guide her lessons.

Michael Honovich was off duty that Tuesday but eventually made his way to the department's headquarters. Days later, he helped dig through the rubble at Ground Zero in search of survivors, she said.

At the time, Nicole Honovich was in fourth grade. She said she remembered the many phone calls from relatives and friends that her family received that day. She recalls her mother telling her that "she wasn’t going to see Dad for a little bit."

"I remember when he came home, he was covered in all the debris," Honovich said.

In the aftermath of the attacks, Honovich said, her mother saved newspaper and magazine clippings, as well as items like teddy bears left at Ground Zero for first responders and letters written to them by local kids.

"So now I set up a little station that shows all of this, and the kids can actually go and they can look through and they can pick up the bears, and they can look at the notes that the students left," Honovich said. "I can use it now to even teach about primary sources versus secondary sources. How we can study history through objects instead of just through textbooks."

Honovich said it took her father, who retired in 2011, years before he could speak about his experience that day. Honovich now uses a recording of an interview she conducted with him as a teaching tool. The recording, along with other material, can be found on her History with Honovich website.

Evolving lessons

As time has passed, the way the Sept. 11 attacks are taught has evolved, educators said.

"At first the students were very close to it. They had lived through it, or their parents had lived through it, or family members had lived through it. And over the years, as the generations have evolved, it's become more of a historical event for many of our students," said Kelly Barry, the Hauppauge district's director of social studies and world languages.

Barry, who was in her first year of teaching when the attacks occurred, said it’s a priority in the district to make sure all students study the events of Sept. 11 in ways that are developmentally appropriate.

Younger students focus on the courage, kindness and resilience shown by first responders. As students get older, teachers start delving into the historical depth and complexity of the events.

Middle and high school students read articles, watch documentaries, have classroom discussions, conduct research and analyze primary sources, among other activities, Barry said.

"High school students examine it as a major turning point in the United States and world history," she said.

Barry said the district also partners with the Gary Sinise Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to honor first responders and their families, for its annual trip to the 9/11 museum in Manhattan.

"We're always kind of looking at how life changed, how their life has changed because of those events, and how future generations, including theirs, should always commemorate September 11th," Barry said.

Pearl Harbor comparison

Some Island educators said 9/11 education has come to resemble how the Pearl Harbor attacks in 1941, which prompted the United States to enter World War II, are taught in schools. 

In the past, educators were sensitive to the knowledge that many students, particularly on Long Island, had a personal connection to the attacks. 

"As time has gone on, it’s like a Pearl Harbor or some type of national tragedy that happened when they weren't alive," said Jim Gilmartin, West Islip's director of social studies. "It is different teaching it."

Gilmartin, who was teaching in West Islip and living in Manhattan at the time of the attacks, said he remembers getting the news of the first tower being hit while teaching a seventh grade U.S history class.

Gilmartin lost a close friend, Danny Trant — who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald — that day. He said he often shares his friend's story with students.

"Though the students weren’t alive, it's firsthand history for us," he noted.

Gilmartin said another West Islip teacher highlights the community members that lost their lives during the attacks. Students visit a memorial, research the lives of those who died and present their findings to their classmates.

The district has also retired the football jerseys of Cantor Fitzgerald employees Joseph Corbett and Douglas DiStefano, who died in the attacks.

In Wantagh, the school district has a dedicated committee that helps coordinate local initiatives like an annual student trip to the 9/11 museum as well as a yearly 5k race. The district also partners with the Gary Sinise Foundation.

Wantagh this year will unveil a permanent memorial in front of the high school that will feature a 9-foot-tall steel replica of the World Trade Center.

"9/11 was such a significant event in American history and had such a significant impact on our country, on our world," Superintendent John McNamara said. "It's important that we continue to teach students about that event, so that they have a true understanding of how that has impacted so many different areas of our country moving forward."