Now that my kids are both in middle school, I figured it was the perfect time to take them on some educational adventures.

This past day off from school, my husband and I decided we would take a day off from work to take them to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. What a great way to educate them on one of our country’s most historic days in modern history. I’m not sure I was prepared for how differently each of us would handle this experience and how emotional it would be.

We started at the Memorial site of the Towers – which doesn’t seem as big as the Towers felt, but is still a majestic sight. My kids seemed uninterested, like they were while visiting the Lincoln Memorial. We tried to explain all of these names were the people that died that day. As my husband and I reflected, I got a tug from my 11-year-old daughter: “You done? Let’s go.” Ok, on we go into the Museum.

The Museum starts out as any museum – lots to see, lots to take in. It’s dark and quiet. This is when the questions started. “Where were you that day?” “Did we know anyone there?” “I don’t understand why it happened.”

As we walked through the main exhibit, it started to feel real. We spent a long time in the room of the victims, looking at their faces and reading stories of who they were. My son skimmed through and my daughter read every one. I watched the tears well up in her eyes as she saw a Magna Doodle® with a note from a Dad lost that morning saying, “Have a great day at school, Love, Daddy.” She wiped her tears and we moved on.

The next room had step-by-step film footage. Each panel had a time stamp, and you could relive the events as they occurred. My son was very interested on how it happened, how people got out or why they couldn’t, how the buildings were structured. And, could it happen again?

There were several stations of handsets with recordings: voicemails to loved ones, distress calls from emergency responders and black box recordings. I think this pushed my daughter over the edge. Too much for her to handle.

We moved toward the exhibit for first responders. As their grandfather was FDNY and had lost many coworkers and friends that day, that exhibit was an emotional one. So I held their hands and shuffled them off to the area of hope – depicting the week following, where they displayed flags of all sizes, pins and signs, showing the unity in the country at the time.

It was an amazing display of how we all should live, every day. There was no race, religion or gender. We were all Americans banding together in the face of tragedy. I remember at that time feeling the strong brotherhood that “all men are created equal.” No one spoke of politics, religion or hatred. We were all together, there to help one another, physically and emotionally. As horrific an event that it was, there was an amazing feeling of hope and unity that emerged from the rubble.

We ended with a video on the rebirth of the World Trade Center and how we can come together to honor the victims, while rebuilding and moving forward.

Although it wasn’t our typical “Family Fun Day,” I think it was important lesson for my children to take with them in the future. Applying our knowledge of hate, loss and unity can help to mold them into strong, compassionate adults.

We will never forget.

https://www.911memorial.org
www.projectrebirth.org