NOVI, Mich. (WXYZ) — While the story of 9/11 is in all history books, no student in K-12 was alive at the time to be able to say they were there and they remember the story. That's why teaching the story of 9/11 today is a little different.
Many people remember where they were September 11, 2001, including U.S. History Teacher Paul Schmid, who was with students on a field trip.
"I remember everything about that day," Paul said. "It was before cellphones were that common only about half of us carried them and so we had been in the woods all morning we had no clue what was going on."
Now in his 25th year teaching history for Novi Community School District, he's teaching students that have no memories from that time.
"For those of us who were around, it's still so vivid and so present in our memories that it seems so strange to have the students who have never experienced that but your average freshman was born in 2010 or 2011," Paul said.
So Schmid says when it comes to teaching the terror attack to this generation, "it's almost like teaching distant history."
While the formal lesson on 9/11 happens later in the year, in his classroom Wednesday, there will be a moment of silence and smaller discussion.
"Just talking about what they saw and how it made them feel," Paul said. "How that might change their view of the world as a perceived threat...giving them kind of a sense of how extraordinary and confusing that this event was for those of us who experienced it live. Then we look into how it has changed America in terms of our view of the world. In terms of national security...we talk about the confusion of that morning one of the things that ill do is show the good morning america television show a portion of it from that morning."
The power of visuals is also a tool used in Warren Consolidated Schools, where Julie Myers has taught for 20 years.
"The man with the red bandana. So it's a story of Wells who was a hero that day," Julie said. "There are so many students that did not-have never heard of it before and I'm finding as I'm teaching less and less have."
It's why she leans on letting her 7th graders take the lead with the conversation.
"(I) kind of focus on how did this make you feel," Julie said. "What did you take out of it? You know it's very quiet in the room as they're watching. You know normally with middle schoolers you gotta be like 'hey shh, hey shh', but it's absolutely silent."
And yers says that's what history is all about. And sharing history doesn't have to be limited to the classroom.
"There's so many stories and that's what history is. Is just Listening to people's accounts and that's how we know things," Julie said. "Studying ancient history that's what historians do and that's what archaeologists do."
