What can today’s Saratoga students take away from 9/11?

When the news broke about the attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, Cristin Reichmuth, a fourth-grade teacher at Argonaut Elementary School, recalled that teachers in the Saratoga Union School District were initially told not to talk about it with students.

Since she’s been able to address the attacks in the classroom, Reichmuth has led a project called “We Could Be Heroes,” encouraging students to research first responders and other essential workers, interview their family about the 9/11 attacks and how they feel the world changed and write a formal thank-you letter to an essential worker of their choice. On Sept. 3, she also dedicated a portion of the lesson to teaching her students about the COVID-19 pandemic and the first responders who handled the global crisis. She said she wanted to use the lesson to teach her students the value of selflessness and gratitude.

“I think it’s so important because it’s inspiring them to be better people, and to see the good in the world and that they can be changemakers,” Reichmuth said in an interview.

The 9/11 attacks were the single deadliest terrorist act in human history, when 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group Al Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes and carried out suicide attacks on American targets, according to History.com. Around 1,000 emergency personnel responded to the attack on the World Trade Center, and more than one-third of those who died were New York City firefighters.

“Our students today weren’t alive to experience it, so we have a responsibility to help them understand what happened and, just as importantly, the lessons that came from it,” said district Superintendent Ken Geisick. “We can teach them about courage, compassion, resilience and the importance of looking out for one another.”

Reichmuth, who specializes in project-based learning, said that her “We Could Be Heroes” activity helps her students practice their writing and research skills by giving them the opportunity to interact with primary and secondary sources and with community members with ties to both 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency response in general, like school nurse Cristina Lee, firefighters that serve Saratoga and members of the California Rescue Dog Association.

Several teachers across other schools in the district shared their own memories and planned lessons in remembrance of 9/11. In Redwood Middle School, seventh-grade Language Arts teacher Kathleen Schelhorse said she would be playing “Why I Love My Mom,” a chapter from comedian and writer Colin Jost’s memoir “A Very Punchable Face.” The chapter is a tribute to Jost’s mother, Dr. Kerry Kelly, and recounts here experience during the 9/11 attacks.

Schelhorse said that while remembering the historical facts and understanding the event’s significance is important, it is equally important for students to understand the human side of history: individual experiences, emotions, courage and lasting impact.

“The authentic voice is important to the story,” Schelhorse said. “Students need to hear the emotion behind the experience.”

Jon Havens, an eighth-grade English and history teacher at Redwood Middle School, recalled that he was an 18-year-old West Valley College student when he watched the first Twin Tower fall in New York City. His math teacher didn’t talk about it in class, and classes were eventually canceled. He said a few students who went to West Valley College were on one of the hijacked planes, spurring lots of discussion on campus in the coming weeks.

Havens said he plans to give a short lesson on the background of that day, including what the Twin Towers were and what they represented to the U.S., and compare and contrast life before and after the attacks. He said he wanted to end the lesson by highlighting specific heroes from that day and how their heroism either saved lives or touched people.

One of the most significant lessons Reichmuch learned through teaching “We Could Be Heroes” over the years was seeing how much of the material children could comprehend and bringing it to a level that is both “exciting and reachable.”

“With this, I look at our history book and it talks about 9/11,” Reichmuch said. “But when COVID happened, I opened it up so it’s not just focusing on the event, but focusing on the heroes and the first responders and essential workers all around the world.”

Many of the students in Reichmuch’s class were toddlers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but the lessons weren’t lost on them.

One student recalled that his parents had to order groceries to be delivered during the lockdown, and that the lesson was “filling in all the gaps for me that I didn’t know when I was 3 or 4 years old.”

He said the most important lesson he learned from Reichmuch’s teachings was that “there’s bad people, but there’s twice as many good people.”