COLUMBIA — At 8:46 a.m. Friday, K-12 schools across South Carolina will go silent.

Although most students know why they’re observing a moment of silence, none were alive the moment American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that killed 3,000 people, teachers are tasked with explaining to students the significance of what happened that day. Roughly one-third of the country wasn’t alive when the attacks took place, which means it’s even more important to make sure students understand the significance of the attacks and their consequences worldwide, educators said.

“It is increasingly moving out of (students’) lived experiences, into their historical memory,” said advanced government teacher Patrick Kelly. “It is incumbent on schools to make sure that memory is vivid and alive.”

Patriot Day

Under state law, every Sept. 11 is designated Patriot Day in schools.

On Patriot Day, representatives of certain organizations, such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Future Farmers of America, can request to speak to students about patriotism and civic involvement. As long as approved representatives give principals enough of a heads up, state law gives them the right to talk to students for up to half an hour.

Many schools also hold ceremonies to remember the attacks and the people killed, said Department of Education spokeswoman Christy Cox. Those might include history lessons, school choir performances and Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps presentations.

Those assemblies give “students across grade levels opportunities to remember the lives lost, honor the courage and sacrifice of first responders and service members, and reflect on the unity and resilience demonstrated by the American people,” Cox said in an email.

In the classroom

Although no state law requires certain discussion around the Sept. 11 attacks, teachers are expected to include them in lessons on major events in American history, Cox said.

“As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we recognize that an entire generation of students has grown up without firsthand memory of these events,” she said. “That reality makes our responsibility even greater — to ensure they will truly never forget.”

The state standards require one lesson focused on the Sept. 11 attacks. When students are in 5th grade, they are expected to learn about what happened and how the country responded through foreign policy, according to the state’s academic standards.

Teachers might weave the attacks into other classes about American history. For instance, during a unit in 8th grade on how world events affected the country or a 6th grade unit on global interdependence, teachers might use 9/11 as a way of exploring conflict, change and global connections, according to the education department.

High schoolers might learn about the attacks during their modern world history class, where students look at how the connections between the U.S. and the rest of the world changed because of major cultural, economic or political shifts. Or, the topic may become part of U.S. government classes, in which teachers could talk about the policy and national security shifts the attacks caused.

For the most part, specifics on how to address the attacks are up to school districts and teachers, Cox said.

Kelly, who teaches at Blythewood High School, considers the attacks an essential part of talking about modern government. Discussing the way government works in any great depth is impossible without at least mentioning Sept. 11, 2001, he said.

“That’s still shaping the way our government operates,” Kelly said.

On Sept. 11 each year, Kelly makes sure to mention the attacks and have a moment of remembrance. He lines up the anniversary with the start of discussions about federalism, using 9/11 and the government’s response as one of several case studies on how the U.S. government’s structure differs from that of other countries, he said.

The topic comes up again throughout his course, including during units on the country’s war powers and civic engagement, he said.

“It’s a constant source of discussion, because modern government was completely reshaped by Sept. 11 and its aftermath,” Kelly said.

Teachers can decide to talk about the attacks at any grade level. As part of the Palmetto Civics Project, which provides teaching resources on major historical events, the state provides teachers age-appropriate topics and activities to broach the subject.

For instance, elementary school classes might focus on the first responders who helped get people out of the wreckage, while middle school students might learn more about what people saw from the ground and how the country responded.

In all grade levels, teachers should make sure to branch out from talking just about the World Trade Center strikes, the handout suggests.

“Many students are familiar with the Twin Towers but may not realize that Americans were also attacked at the Pentagon and that the passengers of Flight 93 demonstrated remarkable courage in resisting the terrorists,” the pamphlet reads.

Changing memories

Although the events feel far removed for many students, some might still have personal connections through parents or other relatives, Kelly said. Especially in a city like Columbia, which has an active military population, students may know someone who fought overseas in the Afghanistan or Iraq wars.

Even for those without a personal connection, the Sept. 11 attacks feel closer to them than other major historical events, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kelly said.

That’s at least partially because of their recency and partially because of how many photos and videos still circulate regularly. Unlike the attack on Pearl Harbor, which is preserved only through black-and-white photographs and a few grainy audio clips, 9/11 is remembered through a huge archive of photos and video, he said.

“Our students are part of that media ecosystem,” Kelly said. “They are exposed to that.”

Jonathan Hepworth, a history professor at Clemson University who does research on how people remember historical events, asks his students each semester which historical event most interests them. A growing number each semester has said 9/11, including this most recent semester, he said.

The reasons varied, he said. Some had a personal connection to the incident. Others got intrigued after watching a documentary, either about the attacks themselves or the conspiracy theories that sprang up in the aftermath.

That suggests the attacks are still significant to students, though the ways they understand what happened is different from how people understood it 24 years ago, or 15 years ago, or even five years ago, Hepworth said.

“It’s always secondhand to them,” Hepworth said of his students. “There’s always a certain amount of distance.”

Over time, collective memory of historical events shifts because of what happens afterward, he said. What felt like a dividing line in history for those experiencing it, even from afar, might feel like more of a curiosity to younger generations, he said.

Making sure young people know what happened, though, is essential, Hepworth said. When people stop talking about major historical events, they disappear from the public consciousness.

Hepworth pointed to the 1918 influenza pandemic as an example. Although the flu infected about a third of the world’s population and is estimated to have killed at least 50 million, the pandemic fell out of popular memory within decades, he said.

People considered the mass tragedy too painful to talk about, Hepworth said. But that led many to forget it happened.

That’s not the case with 9/11. Even though students are more removed from the event a quarter-century later, they are still talking about what happened, which means the difficult work of talking about a massive tragedy is successful, he said.

Losing that collective memory would mean losing vital context about why the world is the way it is, Hepworth said.

“The fact is that everything that we have and decide at any given point is the sum of all the decisions made before us,” Hepworth said. “If we can’t understand what decisions were made and why and people making the decisions they did, we are not going to have a very good understanding of why we are where we’re at.”