By Sisi Wei
Seven years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, the juniors and seniors at Millennium High School were still in fourth or fifth grade. They didn’t know anything about terrorism or suicide bombings. On Monday, Sept. 8, these students shared with their peers memories of the day when everything changed.
“I was in fifth grade,” said Priscilla Do, a 17-year-old student from the Bronx. “We were reading the book ‘Hatchet’ by Gary Paulsen. That’s actually the only book that I remember. Because while reading the part about the plane crashing, the fourth grade teacher came over and was like ‘Look out the window’ and that’s when we saw the Twin Towers with the plane crashing it. My class, the whole class was shooken, because we thought we jinxed it. So it took a couple of therapy sessions for us to realize that it had been because of terrorist attacks.
“It was a terrible nightmare for us,” she said.
Andrés Estela was also in fifth grade that year. After hearing about the plane crash, he walked home from school, smoke from the crash still rising in the distance.
“I didn’t really understand that people killed themselves to burn the towers and destroy them,” he said. “There was like this one moment…and I kind of realized what they did and I had this turn in my stomach. It’s hard for me to explain it. It was a really tough experience and it was really hard. I remember how disturbed I was … even at 10 or 11 years old.”
Do and Estela were two of roughly 40 Millennium junior and seniors who were selected to participate in the National September 11 Memorial and Museum’s demonstration of its pilot education program, which centers around an eight-minute video followed by discussion questions and extension activities. The video details the stories of rescuers, first responders and family members of those affected by 9/11.
“Even now, seven years later, we know that teachers feel ill-prepared to address 9/11 in the classroom,” said Alice Greenwald, director of the Memorial and Museum. “It’s even more challenging because the anniversary falls at the very beginning of the school year.”
The education package was sent to many principals and teachers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as well as across the country, said Sonnet Takahisa, director of education at the museum. The educational outreach is part of the museum’s long-term goals to recruit a core group of teachers to help create both national and local curriculums for 9/11 classroom education. In the future, it also hopes to establish summer institutes to host teachers from across the country to “begin discussing what’s needed in a 9/11 teacher curriculum,” Takahisa said.
The high school, whose school mascot is the phoenix, was chosen to host the demonstration for its historic and symbolic background. The federal 9/11 relief package helped pay for the school’s construction on Broad St.
“Millennium High School, the first new school to open in Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks, is a genuine symbol of Downtown’s rebirth,” Joe Daniels, president of the memorial and organization, said to the students. “You’re part of the important and inspiriting story about how this city has been revitalized … from what appeared to be irreversible devastation.”
As an extra feature for the demonstration, the museum brought Mickey Kross, one of nine individuals in the video, to speak to the students.
Kross, a retired F.D.N.Y. lieutenant, was a part of Engine Company 16, Ladder 7. Responding to a call that the World Trade Center was hit by a plane, Kross was trapped beneath a staircase when Tower 1 collapsed. He and 13 others survived.
“It was a philosopher, George Santayana, and I think he said … ‘Those who fail to remember are doomed to repeat,’ ” Kross said. “[9/11 is] one thing I never wanna see again.”
Education, a key part of the museum’s mission, is especially important for today’s youth, Daniels said.
“There are already children younger than you, growing up without ever knowing the world before 9/11,” he said to the students. “We’re making you all ambassadors of this piece of our nation’s history.”
sisi@downtownexpress.com
