Ten years ago on Sept. 11, someone forgot to turn off the television in Debbie O'Neal's classroom where she taught American government at Lansdowne High School.
Students and teachers watched, stunned, the images of the planes crashing and towers crumbling.
"In 2001 and 2002, it was a current event," O'Neal said. "Now it's a point of history. From that standpoint, the instruction is entirely different."
Kathleen Jauschnegg, who teaches American government at Seton Keough High School, said because students like those at the all-girls Catholic high school were so young at the time of the attacks, they may be less emotional about the topic.
"They've heard about it. They live with it when they go through airports, but they don't have any idea how sudden the change was for us," Jauschnegg said. "I guess that emotional connection isn't quite there for them."
The shock and confusion that struck the country made teaching about the attacks difficult at first, said Kevin Applegate, the social studies department chairman at Western School of Technology and Environmental Science.
"The aftermath was more of the learning opportunity," said Applegate, who was in his second year teacher at the school in 2001. "There were a lot of rumors and a lot of theories out there.
"The separation of fact and fiction was the challenging aspect."
But as the United States approaches the 10th anniversary of the attacks, many students still have strong feelings about the matter and that requires consideration in the classroom.
"The challenge, because it is sensitive, is to make sure you present things in a very objective manner and let students draw conclusions from it," said O'Neal, who has taught at the high school on Hollins Ferry Road for 15 years. "High school kids can certainly do that."
When airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, most of today's high school students were between 4 and 7 years old.
Though they may not have the vivid memories of their elders, Applegate said today's high school students still come into class knowledgeable of the attacks.
"It is significant on the news, they're not just hearing about it at school," Applegate said. "Kids are familiar with the event, although they didn't experience it themselves."
Because memories of it are so strong for many whom the students know, and because the event continues to have an impact on so many different aspects of life in the United States, lessons incorporating Sept. 11 have strong appeal to the students, the teachers agreed.
Now that Sept. 11 is no longer a current event, O'Neal said it is important to teach the students more than just the facts and figures of the day.
"The most important thing that we do is that we don't teach it in isolation," O'Neal said, noting lessons of Sept. 11 are incorporated into government, economics and United States history classes. "What we try to do is to put it into context, so that they understand it in a broader fashion than just something that happened on one day."
Finding that connection comes in the form of finding changes made in the country that affect the students.
"I started a discussion about going through the scanners (at the airport) because that's more immediate to them," said Jauschnegg, in her second year at Seton Keough.
Ninth- and 11th-graders at Western receive the most instruction about Sept. 11, Applegate said, because they study government and U.S. history, respectively.
"The various powers of the government, including wiretapping, is a continuous topic in our school," Applegate said. "They very much enjoy the fact that the government can look at what websites you are going to."
"The challenge, because it is sensitive, is to make sure you present things in a very objective manner and let students draw conclusions from it."
Debbie O'Neal, teacher,
Lansdowne High School