BonnerSprings.com

It's been seven years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and while the rubble has been cleared, the memory of those events continue to live on.

The impact of those attacks on the people of the United States has shaped a generation that was young at the time it occurred. In schools across the area, teachers are using the Sept. 11 events as a tool to teach students how such an event will have changed their lives forever.

"This is something that I think is pretty important. It was the Pearl Harbor of these student's generation," said Scott Hagedorn, who teaches E-tech at Clark Middle School.

Hagedorn has taught a special lesson on Sept. 11 every year on the event's anniversary. This year will be his first chance to teach the lesson in Bonner Springs, but in his past experience with his former students in Chapman, Kan., Hagedorn said the impact of the discussions that come from such a lesson can be powerful.

"(At Chapman) we showed the entire two-hour broadcast, as well as the specials they had on their news. I realized that most of the students and teachers were in school when (the Sept. 11 attacks) happened, so they didn't get to see the broadcast and mass confusion," Hagedorn said of his lesson. "The horror of those events should not be forgotten, and we need to respect the bravery of every person that tried to help out on that day. The kids (at Chapman) were definitely touched, so I'm hoping our kids will have the same experience."

As the Sept. 11 anniversary approached, Hagedorn spoke with other teachers and administrators in the school and it was decided that during the daily announcement video, the school would show clips from the CBS broadcast during the morning of the attacks. Following, several teachers will open up the floor for discussions for students to share their memories about the event.

In Hagedorn's class, he said because he understands that his students would have been very young back in 2001, he wants to present the broadcasts to give them a different perspective and present the material that may now mean more to them at a more mature age.

"The message we're hoping to get across is that even though (the students) were small at the time, this is an event that shaped the course of their generation," he said.

This will be the youngest group that Hagedorn has ever showed the CBS broadcast to, which included clips from the planes striking the Twin Towers in New York City before they collapsed to the ground. He said from his experience with other students, the images usually cause strong emotions, but he said that also leads to good discussions.

"I'm hoping more than anything that (the lesson) brings it back to the forefront and stirs conversation about how these events shaped us and a community," he said.

Over at Bonner Springs High School, several teachers in the history, social studies and government departments are also planning discussions with their students about the Sept. 11 anniversary.

For Jenny Myers, who teachers American Government and American History to BSHS juniors and seniors, the events of Sept. 11 are a moment in history that she said students should be reminded of continually.

"It's very important to teach it because these kids witnessed it," she said. "They've seen images of it. A lot of what we're doing nowadays has come from that incident."

In her classes Wednesday and today, Myers will show five to 10 minutes worth of video clips that show the attacks and the aftermath of the day. She will then ask her students to write a journal entry addressing what they were doing that day seven years ago and what has happened or change since then.

She especially plans to tie in the Sept. 11 event with the 2008 presidential election. With subjects such national security and terrorism popping up in the Republican and Democratic convention speeches and likely to arise in upcoming presidential candidate debates, Myers said she wanted her students to understand why those issues have become such hot topics.

"When we're looking at the presidential election the issue of how to keep our country safe and terrorism in general is something we have to deal with now," she said. "20 years ago for these kids before 9/11they never would have thought we had to secure our borders and that someone was planning to harm us, but nowadays, unfortunately, it's something we have to think about."

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