This past Saturday was a day of remembrance for 9/11/01. Many Americans spent time during the day reflecting on that terrible day that happened in our country 9 years ago. The teachers at my school wore red, white, and blue shirts on Friday. I wore a patriotic shirt with American flags on it. An 8 year old girl asked me why I was wearing my flag shirt since it wasn’t July 4th or one of the typical patriotic holidays. Click here for that story.

That encounter made me think about children born since 9/11/01 and if they really know what all happened and what it was all about. The encounter made me wonder if young people who were in preschool and elementary school at the time of the 9/11 terrorists attacks really knew what was happening in our country on that day and if they remembered those events.

I ran a survey on Twitter and Facebook to ask people under age 25 to answer questions about that day. Here are the questions I asked:

As a parent of a student under 25, your children were young when the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center occurred in New York City.

Do they remember the news of the attacks?

Do they remember where they were when they heard the news?

How old were they at the time?

Did they understand what was happening? Did they understand on their own or from what you and other adults told them?

I received a few responses back. Most responses were that their children were either too young to know anything going on or their children had not been born at that time so they know nothing or very little of the events.

One friend said her son was 3 years old at that time and used to build towers with blocks then fly airplanes into the blocks. So he knew a little of what happened but possibly from the media coverage on TV.

Another friend said her daughter was in 3rd grade at that time and remembers watching the news on TV in her classroom, then a lot of friends were called out of class to go home that day. They were only told that some bad people crashed 2 planes into the twin towers. It wasn’t until later that they found out what really happened.

Another friend said her daughter was born a year later. They have not talked to her very much about the events, but she did draw a picture of it at school.

Another friend said she and her daughter talked about the events when it was on the news on Saturday but her daughter doesn’t really understand much about it. She was not born at the time of 9/11.

One friend, now 17, said she was only 8 years old at the time, so she doesn’t remember much and isn’t sure how long after the attacks she found out. She only remembers her mom yelling at the TV and asking her what it was about. Her mom’s explanation was that planes had crashed into a couple of buildings, but this young girl didn’t understand the significance at the time.

The responses I received were mostly from people with children who were too young to know anything or were not born at that time, so the 9/11 attacks do not mean much to this age group of children.

I had an experience with a true millennial student in the late afternoon of September 10, 2010. It was Patriot’s Day, the day to remember 9/11 and the families and victims surrounding the tragic events of that day 9 years ago. We were asked to wear red, white, and blue in remembrance of the day. I went further than only those colors by wearing a shirt with 2 M&M’s (I love the M&M’s) holding American flags. On the bottom portion of my shirt it says “Show Your Colors.”

One student at school late in the day asked me why I was wearing a shirt with American flags on it. It wasn’t July 4th or Memorial Day. I asked her how old she was and she said 8 years old. I gently explained the basics of what happened on 9/11 one year before she was born and that’s why we were wearing the colors of our country. This young girl had a look on her face like she knew nothing of those historic events. That would be like me hearing something that happened the year before I was born. All I know is what I have read or been told.

That conversation got me to thinking about that time again. I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news of the plane crashes. I was teaching early childhood students in Tampa, Florida, at that time. It was a big deal in Florida because President George W. Bush was reading to students at a school in Sarasota that day. He wasn’t that far away from where we were. I was impressed with how he handled the news. They showed people whispering in his ear to let him know what was happening. He didn’t freak out and stand up and immediately say he had to leave because the World Trade Center had been hit. That could have really caused a big panic with those young students and that school. He finished his reading assignment and calmly left town.

So I started thinking… When did those Sarasota students and teachers find out President Bush heard the news of 9/11 while he was reading to them? How were they affected when they realized he had to leave their school and their classroom because of such a tragic day? Where are those students now and do they remember that historic day in America?

Children have been learning by doing and through play for years. In the 21st Century, students learn by doing in different ways. They want to create — digitally and electronically.

Are we engaging them and allowing them to create on a 21st Century level? Watch this video to see what 21st Century learners want:

21st Century learners