From 2021: Teachers rely on Flight 93 Memorial, personal experiences to teach about 9/11

As we remember the losses felt on Sept. 11, 2001, TribLive published a story in 2021 about how the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville in Somerset County teaches the history and lessons from that day.

For those who were alive on Sept. 11, 2001, the memories are often vivid.

Many remember where they were when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Most remember watching the news, learning of the attacks as they happened.

But today’s students weren’t alive to witness the events as they unfolded. Instead, they learn about the events in classrooms.

Local educators agree this is one piece of history they can’t simply ask students to read about in a textbook.

“It’s a tricky thing,” said Kevin McGuire, Woodland Hills High School’s librarian. “As a teacher, you have to approach subjects and think, ‘What could I tell the students to make them realize the significance of this?’ ”

The answer, he said, required him to go beyond the classroom.

More from a 2021 look at the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11:

• Local teachers rely on Flight 93 National Memorial, personal experiences to teach about 9/11
• Hallowed Ground: Families of those on Flight 93, the Shanksville community and others forged resolve to see national memorial come to life
• Shanksville remains small, quiet, but forever connected to 9/11
• A call to arms: 9/11 served as a call to military service for many Western Pennsylvania residents
• 20 years later, former Shanksville area students recall 9/11
• A lasting effect: How 9/11 impacted the lives of Western Pennsylvanians at World Trade Center, Pentagon, Shanksville

About three years ago, McGuire and several other educators at the school took a group of students to the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville in Somerset County. The memorial, he explained, shows students a timeline of events and helps them realize the magnitude of a historic day that saw United Flight 93 crash close to home.

“The thing that spoke to the students so much about 9/11 is the fact that a huge part of what happened that day happened an hour’s car ride away from where they live,” he said. “I think it does make it more personal for them. That’s, I think, a really good approach to teaching history — trying to find something that you can relate to what students already know, what they experience.”

The students he took to the memorial a few years ago were young children when the attack occurred, and many didn’t remember much from the time, McGuire said. But they helped preserve their experience at the site for students who came after them.

They went to the memorial armed with 360-degree cameras, which they used to capture hundreds of photos of the scene. Those photos were compiled into a virtual tour of the Flight 93 Memorial that educators at Woodland Hills now use to teach students — who weren’t alive in 2001 — about the attack.

Students view the virtual tour each year around the anniversary of 9/11, and teachers recall their firsthand memories of the day to add a personal element.

“It’s always somber when we talk about it, as it should be anytime you talk about an event that killed 3,000 people,” McGuire said.

Woodland Hills is one of several local school districts that have incorporated field trips to Shanksville in their teaching of 9/11.

Highlands School District takes an annual trip each September, said Julia Graczyk-Hiester, a sixth grade social studies teacher. They map out the flight’s path, showing students how it turned near Pittsburgh, she said.

Burrell School District took high school students to the memorial a few years ago — a trip that Anthony Facemyre, the district’s social studies department head, called “meaningful.” Kiski Area also hosts trips to the site — though they opted for virtual tours during the pandemic, said David Williamson, who teaches juniors and seniors and heads the social studies department. He hopes to take as many students as possible to the memorial this year to commemorate the 20th anniversary.

Mt. Pleasant Area educators take students for a trip to the site at least once a year as part of their 9/11 remembrance, said Robert Gumbita, the high school principal and a former history teacher.

“It’s right in our backyard,” he said.

Flight 93 passed close over Mt. Pleasant Area School District’s campus — where Gumbita was teaching on Sept. 11, 2001. At the time, students and teachers weren’t glued to computer screens and cellphones throughout the day, so it wasn’t until Gumbita found a group of cafeteria workers huddled around a television that he realized something historic was unfolding.

“They were watching a live feed of the one tower that was hit,” he recalled. “Just as I approached, that’s when the second tower was struck. I stood in awe as these events were transpiring, knowing that I had to walk into the next period class.”

Throughout the day, he said, the administration told teachers to keep the kids focused on class and urged them not to discuss the situation until they had all the facts.

But it was hard to ignore — especially since they began to realize Flight 93 had flown overhead and crashed nearby.

“It went over our school in a descent pattern,” Gumbita said, though he didn’t realize it had the time.

Parents came to pick up their kids in droves, he said, and by the end of the day, his classes were largely empty.

Gumbita said he retells those stories — and memories about how the nation rallied together in the aftermath of the attack — to students on the anniversary. The school also explain the timeline of events by making announcements through the PA system throughout the day on Sept. 11 each year.

At Burrell School District — where teachers and students often don red, white and blue attire on the anniversary — each teacher recognizes the event in a way appropriate to their subject matter and grade level, Facemyre said. They often incorporate their own stories into their teaching.

“Since the majority of the department was in the beginning stages of their teaching career on that fateful day, we tell our own story of that day and how it played out for us personally,” Facemyre said. “In that respect, the experience is different for each student, depending on who their teacher is in any given year.”

While teaching students “as many facts as possible,” Williamson said he, too, relies on his own memories and other firsthand accounts of events. Educators have to tap into those recollections, he said, as many history books don’t yet discuss 9/11.

Some classes — like AP European History — touch on the War on Terror at the end of the year, Williamson said, but teachers still prefer to offer special reflections on the attack’s anniversary.

At Highlands, Graczyk-Hiester encourages students to empathize with victims. Each of her students researches a specific passenger who died on Flight 93. Then, they make a presentation about the passenger they researched. It helps them make connections with those who lost their lives in the tragedy, she said.

Empathy and respect are important to Williamson as well. A few years ago, he said, he began seeing memes and internet jokes circulating about 9/11, which inspired him to teach students not only facts and timelines, but also “to keep the event sacred.”

“Hopefully teaching it and focusing on that day will bring some more sensitivity back,” he said, adding that he also warns students against the xenophobia and hatred that some experienced after the attack.

As time passes and students are more removed from the event, they become “less aware,” McGuire said. But, because 9/11 is ingrained in today’s culture, most students still know many of the main points of history, such as the role of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and the U.S. military response in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

McGuire said he also tries to point out the ramifications of the event still impact them — like heightened security at airports.

“That’s an important thing to talk about — what’s happened as a result of it and how much things have changed since then,” McGuire said.

Gumbita, too, said he wants students to understand the magnitude of Sept. 11 and learn from it.

“We just try to keep that memory going,” he said. “Like they always say, those who forget history tend to repeat it. Freedom isn’t free.”

At Mt. Pleasant, he said, they especially recognize their graduates who went on to serve in the military — which many students did soon after 9/11.

While educators agree it’s not always easy to teach students about such a significant historical event, one thing that makes it easier is the wealth of information easily accessible, Facemyre said.

He shows students documentaries and uses news broadcasts and firsthand accounts from the time to paint a vivid picture.

“For students today, who weren’t even born when 9/11 happened, they have come to rely not only on our stories, but also on the visceral images that remain, and the documentaries and firsthand accounts which became so numerous after the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville,” Faceymre said. “In many ways, teaching 9/11 20 years later is somewhat similar to what it must have been like to teach about Pearl Harbor as time passed — but the imagery is much more voluminous and accessible than was the case with that other fateful day in American history.”