Classrooms deal with the lessons of Sept. 11 attacks

Chris Casey, (Bio) ccasey@greeleytrib.com
September 11, 2006

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As the towers in New York City collapsed, disbelief grew in classrooms across the nation.

Fear, confusion, anger.

Against a backdrop of shock, teachers found themselves tossed into the role of grief counselors. In social studies and history classes, especially, they found something else: the ultimate teachable moment.

John Haefeli, a social studies teacher at Greeley West High School, was getting breakfast burritos for students who had won a contest. He bumped into a colleague who told him about sketchy reports of a commuter plane hitting the World Trade Center. When he got to school, the TVs were on and the gravity of the news escalated.

Members of the social studies department met for a quick conference.

"We discussed it as a group very quickly to make sure we had some basics," Haefeli said. "Throughout the course of the day, each of the classes watched what was occurring."

All of the local educators and students interviewed for this story remembered precisely where they were and what they were doing the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center. Most were in class, glued to TVs broadcasting the unthinkable.

For some of today's high school students -- middle- and grade-schoolers back then -- the tragedy awakened an interest in world events. Five years later, here in Greeley, far from ground zero, the shockwaves of Sept. 11 live on. Some students still feel fear and paranoia. The sense that the world is a dangerous place is as pervasive as ever.

Alyssa Bernhardt and Natalie Riddle, a senior and junior at Northridge High School, didn't know where the World Trade Center was until 9/11.

"It kind of opened my eyes up to what was going on in the world," Bernhardt said of the terrorist attacks. "It made me pay more attention. It kind of made me scared, too, of what could happen."

"Especially us being a new generation," added Riddle, "and what the future could hold."

Taliban. Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida. Shadowy Middle Eastern groups and leaders were suddenly pushed to the forefront of classroom discussions.

"One of our goals was to make sure we answered the questions they had," Haefeli said. "I think for a week I opened up (class) with 'Does anybody have any questions?' "

The Middle East is a challenging subject for anybody, Haefeli said. Greeley-Evans School District 6 provides a window into the murk with its senior world studies and geography class, a required subject. Students get a five-week unit on the Middle East during the semester-long class.

As events unfolded in 2001, "we did the best we could to keep (students) abreast of it," Haefeli said. "I think we do a much better job now of being aware of what's occurring in the Middle East. Like anything else in history, it sometimes gets shoved to the back burner."

While the geopolitics remain complex, Haefeli found that the human component of the tragedy was readily understandable, especially for his younger students.

"In a situation like that, it wasn't only about the people in New York City or in the Middle East," he said. "It was what was going on in Denver with the compassion that was being shown, with what was being given, from blood to people volunteering to go to New York to help."

Martin Gonzalez, a freshman at Northridge, was a grade-schooler in 2001. He remembers his teachers crying while watching the news reports.

"I just felt all scared because I didn't know what was going on until later," he said. "I just felt sad when I found out."

Jeff Morris, a Northridge junior, watched the reports all morning while he was home with a migraine. He said he was angry and paranoid as he watched.

Kathy Switzer, a retired Greeley Central social studies teacher, was recuperating from surgery in September 2001. She returned to the classroom within the week of Sept. 11 and found a "really tough" atmosphere with her students.

"The feelings that adults were having at the time -- the kind of horror, the shock of it all -- were pretty much mirrored by the kids," Switzer said. "They felt the same way. They were probably as confused about the Middle East as adults were."

She said courses such as world studies are more important than ever in a globalized society.

Dave Gonzales, a social studies teacher at Central, still teaches world studies -- as he was doing on that fateful morning. He said he now puts more emphasis on the Middle East and terrorism in his classes.

Students have more interest, he said.

"It hits home," Gonzales said. "They see it on the news, and they have relatives involved, so definitely, they are interested in this."