SHAWANO, WI- Many people who think back to where they were on September 11, 2001 will say that they were in school. The school year was just getting started and class curriculum was well underway, especially in the social studies departments.
Brian Johnson was teaching US History that day in Shawano and says it was a day in the classroom like no other.
“We were done with scheduled curriculum that day,” Johnson recounts.
After hearing the news, Johnson said it was a different type of education.
“It all just happened so fast. In 2001, it was just like, pow, here we go. We just watched TV and we talked and the kids had questions and we did not have all the answers, but we were paying attention and it was live teaching at the moment and it was a stressful time. ”
He said the students were full of questions, some of which he did not even have the answer to.
“What was the magnitude of this? Why are they doing this? How big of deal is this?”
Twenty years later, Johnson is still teaching and does spend some time with US History. All students who are in Preschool through Senior year in High School were all not born yet when that September morning took place. Johnson said that means while many of us experienced it first hand, they did not.
“We make an effort to try to at least touch on this stuff, but kids are clueless when it comes to some of this stuff. They know we got attacked, but they don’t understand the whole premise of it and with Afghanistan, they don’t realize that we have been at war since the day they were born, they can’t wrap their heads around that.”
Johnson added this week every year is a good time to spend talking about it, because they normally don’t get a chance to get there by the end of the school year.
“When you take a look at history, if we don’t learn from our mistakes, it tends to repeat itself,” said Johnson. “The problem is our students, we keep adding history but we don’t add more history requirements in school and we have a hard time even getting to the 90’s and 2000’s in our history classes,” he said. “It’s complicated stuff and it’s too bad we don’t have more time to cover their lifetime.”
Johnson said only by doing that, we will ensure that the next generation will be able to continue using the phrase “Never Forget”
“I think it is important that our students understand the sacrifices that our soldiers make and the decisions of government because these are going to be our future leaders.”
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