From lived experience to history lesson: campus perspectives on 9/11

By CIARA CEBALLOS-GUTIERREZ

Tiger Media Network

The 9/11 terrorist attacks will forever be etched in the memories of those who either lived through the experience or watched the events unfold on their television screens. However, for the current generation of college students, September 11 is something they only learn about through documentaries, class discussions and conversations with adults who witnessed it firsthand. 

FHSU senior Lily Nash remembers learning about 9/11when her class spent part of the school day discussing the attacks and aftermath.

“My earliest memory of learning about 9/11 was probably the fifth grade,” Nash said. “I remember my teachers sitting down with us and talking about 9/11, and I already had general knowledge about it, but this was the first time I had actually seen the planes make contact.”

FHSU freshman Eva Ives had a similar introduction to the attacks. She first learned about the day in elementary school, but her understanding grew as she got older.

 “ My earliest memory of learning about 9/11 was probably in a history class in elementary school, it was something they would bring up,” Ives said. “It was kind of towards middle school that [teachers] would go deeper and then I understood the gravity of the situation.”

For students who were not alive in 2001, understanding the significance of 9/11 developed over time.

“I don’t think I paid much attention to it until more recently when I started doing my own research about it, ” FHSU freshman Rarick Ziegler said. “I think it was inspiring to see how Americans can rally together through times of crisis. I don’t think I will be able to fully understand the gravity of the situation because I didn’t live it but I feel like I can understand a little about how it really affected our nation as a whole”

For today’s college students, 9/11 has always been something learned about rather than experienced. However, that was not always the case in college classrooms. Professors who experienced the attacks firsthand have watched the relationship with 9/11 change across generations.

“In my class, we were bringing up stuff and I mentioned that it was the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and everyone kind of looked at me like ‘okay’ and at that moment I knew that [9/11] was no longer a life-changing thing for everyone in the class to understand together,” said criminal justice professor Tamara Lynn.

In the years following the attacks, professors and students shared a more immediate connection to the event. Now, many students encounter it through lessons and stories from people who have lived through it.

 Art professor Brittany Gorelick was a fifth grader in New York when the attacks occurred. 

“So I was in fifth grade. I actually lived in Brooklyn,  and I was in a library class,” Gorelick said. “I remember that they closed all of the blinds and a student had come back crying and we had no idea why. It turns out he had actually seen the first plane hit the first tower.”

Unlike most college students today, who experienced 9/11 as a historical event, Gorelick experienced the aftermath as it was unfolding.

“I remember there was a lot of fear and scrutiny, especially [with] my friends who were Muslim and they were really scared because all of a sudden they had a target on their back,” Gorelick said. 

For professors who experienced 9/11 themselves, that generational divide has become increasingly noticeable. Philosophy professor Carl Miller said the change can be seen not only in students’ knowledge of the attacks, but also in the cultural references they no longer recognize.

“I think one of the things you discover as you are teaching is that gradually students become less aware of the things,” Miller said. “Pop culture references stop affecting them, they stop referencing things you know about and so gradually you realize students were not around or alive at the time. It doesn’t seem that long ago to me, it’s still pretty fresh in my memory.”