TOLEDO, Ohio — In the hours, days and weeks following 9/11, many parents had to hide or find a way to explain the frightening images from that day to their children.
But in the moment, teachers had to make a quick decision about how to not only calm students but help them witness history.
“We think it would be important for you to turn on your television sets, something is happening, planes have gone into the World Trade Center,” recalled Trish Sanders, a teacher at Notre Dame Academy.
“It was hard to decide what to do at that time,” added Amy Johns, another teacher at Notre Dame, working in the classroom on September 11, 2001.
Many classes at Notre Dame Academy made their way down to the library, where at the time one of few TVs was available.
Kristin Schank, an NDA high school senior at the time, was one of those students.
“I remember just kind of all just feeling uncertain and being scared for what was going on,” said Schank.
As students at Notre Dame watched the images unfold on live television, many became scared and nervous the United States government was going to be overthrown. But what started as an uneasy classroom environment quickly turned into a history lesson when teachers jumped into action.
Retired government teacher Jackie Konwinski directed students' attention to the blackboard. She began teaching about government structure to reassure students they were safe.
“This other teacher and I began to talk a little bit with them, and so we talked to the girls a little bit about what this meant and that the intelligence of our government will find out who is behind this and deal with this,” said Konwinski.
While Konwinski does not teach anymore, Amy Johns and Trish Sanders do; both are still at Notre Dame Academy.
20 years later, they have watched Sept. 11 turn into a history lesson for students, rather than something they remember firsthand.
“It’s very much an abstract concept. It's like something that happened in a textbook,” said Johns.
“I went from teaching students who were directly affected and old enough to be directly affected by 9/11 to teaching students who were too little to remember, to teaching students who were not born yet,” said Sanders.
But one thing that has not changed in the past 20 years: the reverence and respect students display, especially when seeing the images from that day.
“Feeling the sense of community we had here, to be able to pray for all the victims, and that feeling of we were all together,” said Schank.
That reverence carries over for those who are old enough to remember the feeling of togetherness in the days following the attacks.
“I think it’s the one time that I can remember in my adult life that the country was really, really united,” said Johns.
“One of the things I am always so awed by with my students is their empathy, their ability to reach out and support others," said Schank. "So I saw a lot of that, of a lot of 'how can we help? How can we get better from this?' which I think is pretty much the best thing children can learn in the whole world."