Teachers: 9/11 'our history, generation'

Jason Manning lingered beside the big windows on the unfinished 48th floor of 7 World Trade Center, gazing at the immense square shapes below, the "footprints" of where the two great towers once stood.

Manning, 31, who teaches social studies at Oceanside High School, already includes the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in his instruction of 11th- and 12th-graders. But he said Tuesday that he will bring the experience of seeing Ground Zero with his own eyes -- from that vantage point -- into his classroom.

"The most powerful thing is being here and seeing it firsthand," said Manning, one of about 40 educators attending a workshop at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center on how to teach about the terrorist attacks and their aftermath. "There are so many different ways to teach about 9/11."

Organizers of the workshop, which will be repeated Thursday, said personal stories of those touched by Sept. 11 are a primary way to bring home to students the magnitude of the attacks and the tragic, far-reaching consequences.

"We feel that 9/11 is a very important pivotal moment in the 21st century," said Tracy Garrison-Feinberg, senior program associate with Facing History and Ourselves, the education group that presented the workshop with the tribute center. "We want kids to take ownership of this incident, which is their own history."

The forum in lower Manhattan drew a mix of teachers and administrators from throughout the region, and those who attended teach students in kindergarten through 12th grade as well as higher education. About 40 people attended Tuesday's workshop -- nearly double the number that attended last year -- and another 40 are expected to participate Thursday.

Herricks Middle School teacher Tammy Eng, 29, has noticed her seventh-grade students are not as familiar with Sept. 11 as older students who remember the day.

"Many of the kids were 2 when it happened," she said, adding she has felt an urgency to teach about it. "There are so many ways to approach it."

Eng and colleague Michael Meehan, 29, who teaches English, said they may look at developing lessons across their respective disciplines. Meehan said he may use posters that show the missing in a writing exercise.

"This is our history, our generation," Meehan said. "If we don't share the stories, they have a tendency to be forgotten."

Organizers said the upcoming 10th anniversary of the attacks, coupled with the death of Osama bin Laden in May, has led to an increasing interest in teaching about Sept. 11. In addition, while some educators have been reluctant to teach about the sensitive and complicated subject, attitudes have started to shift with the passage of time.

The teachers started with a tour of the WTC Tribute Visitors Center and continued on the 48th floor of 7 World Trade Center. They viewed segments of oral histories collected by the tribute center that are available for classroom use. The videos included stories of a principal who worked in a nearby school and who lost her sister in the attacks; after Sept. 11, she helped build a school in Afghanistan.

Lee Ielpi -- a co-founder of the tribute center whose firefighter son, Jonathan, 29, was killed on 9/11 -- addressed the group as well. Ielpi, of Great Neck, who is president of the September 11th Families' Association, has called for the state and federal governments to mandate teaching about Sept. 11.

Tuesday, he spoke of the 250 oral histories the tribute center has assembled and a toolkit for educators that is available for free.

"What we can do is put together good, positive stories of people impacted by 9/11," Ielpi said. "What better way to approach history than by those who lived it?"