March 29, 2023

How a Fairfax Co. superior university background instructor discusses 9/11 with students

Doug Zywiol tells his seniors at Hayfield Secondary Faculty in Fairfax County, Virginia, he was on Sept. 11, 2001. He ends up teaching them a good deal extra.

When seniors at Hayfield Secondary Faculty in Fairfax County, Virginia, entered Doug Zywiol’s governing administration course Friday, Zywiol commenced talking about wherever he was on Sept. 11, 2001.

Zywiol, the school’s social scientific tests office chair, informed his students he was 18 and a freshman in higher education at the time. He mentioned he vividly remembers waking up in his dorm home and turning on the Television set. He recalled becoming stunned at the functions that transpired.

Times prior to the 21st anniversary of 9/11, Zywiol stated his students continue to be curious about the direct-up to, and the aftermath of, the attacks. They’re normally apprehensive at initially, but usually ask questions about why the attack occurred and what Osama bin Laden’s goals have been.

Sophomore learners, who consider a study course masking planet record following 1500, may well discuss 9/11 from an international standpoint, Zywiol stated. As juniors, pupils choose U.S. History, and seniors in govt courses “fully comprehend the magnitude of what transpired on that working day,” he mentioned.



The goal is “giving youngsters that point of view, to understand not only the tragedy of that working day, and the reduction of lifetime, which is the most essential section, but in the long run how the globe entirely modified as a consequence of all those occasions,” Zywiol explained. “That’s the one message that I normally want to get throughout to little ones.”

Record teachers at Hayfield Secondary normally approach classes in chronological order, but Zywiol explained the division performs about this time of yr to join themes from 9/11 to the subjects they’re at this time chatting about.

After speaking about his ordeals on 9/11, Zywiol explained he clarified what happened to the aircraft in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.

“That’s a awesome segue into talking about heroism and patriotism,” Zywiol stated. “Things like sacrificing for our place and why we don’t forget this working day so vividly.”

He concludes by speaking about how the attacks influenced the U.S. federal government, exclusively its cupboard departments, and conversing a bit about Afghanistan and Al-Qaida.

Zywiol also stated he determined his college students to volunteer for 1 of a lot of gatherings planned for Sunday.

“A excellent instructor would attempt to get their students to apply all those principles and people ideas in the real globe,” Zywiol said. “What far better way to do that than volunteering your time on the day of remembrance?”

In the course of lunch Friday, Zywiol reported just about every trainer in the office reflected on exactly where they had been on 9/11. One particular of the instructors was in his initially year of training two of the department’s most recent instructors were being 2 decades aged at the time.

“Everybody needs to communicate about what they try to remember about that working day, if they ended up below,” Zywiol stated. “That’s obviously what social studies are heading to speak about on that day.”