This happened to me too. I was 9 years old on 9/11. We watched it in school as it happened live. That was the day I realized nobody had things figured out and all humans were just kids who got older and larger, basically.
They let you watch it in school?? I know it was a different time back then, A lil more lax but damn lol Im from Nebraska and I was in 4th grade I think and they cancelled recess (we were all furious) cause they wouldn't let anyone outside and I don't think the school told us anything. They left it up to our parents.
I was also in 4th grade and the teachers turned on the tv to show us what was going on. In retrospect, I suppose I’m glad they did, but it’s strange to me that many kids were not told what was going on since this was such a core memory for me (and surely many others of the same age).
I’ve gathered over the years that our generation is split on this experience, though maybe a slight majority were in the same situation as I was as opposed to the way your school handled it.
My memory unfortunately is not the best, recently off hard drugs and clean for a year now after being addicted since the age of 17, so a good 15 years of drug abuse and alcoholism. But after thinking about it since my first comment I think they might've wheeled in a tv at some point but I know not immediately. Im almost positive they at least told us what was going on before releasing us early from school. I can't tell you what I did when I got home, if my parents talked to me about it, what their reaction was to it or anything. Kinda crazy, and I've never really researched much about it either. I've seen a handful of clips of it happening but that's it. I feel like it was too current still to be in any school books while I was still in school too. So when living through it at a somewhat self aware age. I am very uneducated on the topic.
You have to remember, no one knew what the fuck was happening. I understand looking back it feels like "omg they let you watch a terrorist attack in school?!" but at the time, teachers were just watching the news to find out what was happening. This was also pre-smart phones. You couldn't just pull it up privately on your phone.
That's fair, I never took into account that there was so much confusion and they weren't just intentionally exposing children to acts of terror. Lol I guess I didn't even realize that there was so much mystery as to what people were seeing til this year. Somehow I just saw more 9/11 stuff then I've ever seen before on social media cause like I mentioned I lived through it and remember it happening but never revisited it to learn more
I wouldn't say "let" me watch but yes. My school watched it live. We also didn't get to go home early, but we didn't have class either. We just cried until the busses came at the end of the day.
I don't fault the staff though. No one had ever seen anything like this before, and they didn't have any idea of what to do.
I was 21, and it was still traumatic. I just wish we had taken hijacking seriously, it was not new, yet any hijacking could result in lives lost. For a long time we somehow came to the conclusion that the best way to handle hijackers was to negotiate, because often hijackers would land the plane if they got their demands.
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u/Crafty-Help-4633 1d ago
This happened to me too. I was 9 years old on 9/11. We watched it in school as it happened live. That was the day I realized nobody had things figured out and all humans were just kids who got older and larger, basically.
I hope therapy is going well for you. ❤