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We say often that our schools have a responsibility not only to educate our children, but to help them understand the world they are inheriting.

Today, that responsibility carries particular meaning.

Today marks 25 years since the terrifying morning that nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and rural Pennsylvania.

For those of us who remember that day, the memories remain remarkably clear.

We remember where we were, the fear and confusion. We remember the heartbreaking images and the painful realization that our country, and our world, had changed.

We also remember something else.

We remember people running toward danger to help others. We remember first responders, health professionals and ordinary citizens demonstrating extraordinary courage.

We remember people opening their homes, giving blood, comforting strangers and doing whatever they could to help.

And we remember educators who, in the midst of uncertainty and fear, did what educators so often do: they took care of children.

Twenty-five years later, thousands more people have lost their lives from illnesses connected to exposure from Sept. 11 and its aftermath. Families, survivors, first responders and communities continue to carry the consequences of that day.

We owe all of them our remembrance, too.

And, as educators, we owe our students an understanding of this history.

Sept. 11 is not something our students of today experienced on their own. It is something they have learned about. They know it through photographs, videos, history lessons and stories told by their family members, teachers and others who experienced it firsthand.

That distinction matters.

Because when living memory begins to fade, education becomes one of the ways a community remembers.

Our responsibility is not to tell students what to think or what to feel. It is to help them understand what happened, to recognize the human lives behind the stories and the statistics, and to consider the courage, sacrifice, grief and compassion that followed.

It is also our responsibility to make sure that Sept. 11 does not become simply another date in a textbook.

Our students should know about the people who were lost, the people who served, the people who helped. They should understand how those events changed New York, changed our country and changed our world.

But I also believe there is something more our students can learn.

They can learn that, in moments of tremendous difficulty, people have a choice about how they respond.

We can respond with fear. We can respond with division. Or we can respond by caring for one another, standing together and choosing courage and humanity.

That is an especially important lesson to remember today.

As a school district, we will continue to teach this history with care and respect.

Because remembering matters. 

Teaching matters.

And what we choose to carry forward matters.

May we honor those we lost 25 years ago, and in the years that have followed, by keeping their stories alive, honor those who served by remembering their sacrifice, and give our children the knowledge and perspective they need to build a future defined by compassion, courage, understanding and hope.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Joseph Hochreiter
Superintendent