For Today’s Kids, 9/11 Is History. For One Teacher, It’s Personal.

By Karin Caifa

West Chester, Pennsylvania (CNN) – For today’s K-12 students, and even some teachers, the September 11, 2001, terror attacks are history.

But for adults who experienced the day vividly, putting the day’s gravity and meaning into classroom lessons can pose challenges.

Martha “Marty” Runzer, is a fifth-grade teacher at Glen Acres Elementary School in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and a former United Airlines flight attendant.

Runzer was on maternity leave on September 11, 2001. She watched names from the four hijacked airliners scroll on television, including United Airlines Flight 93, which passengers and crew fought the hijackers to prevent the plane from reaching its target in Washington DC. The plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“That’s when things really started crashing down for me. Like these might be people I know,” she said. “And then I really started to worry.”

Flight 93 flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw was one week ahead of Runzer in training, and she had flown with Flight 93 senior flight attendant Lorraine Bay multiple times.

“I do recall flying with her when I was based out of Newark. Not many times, but I just remember what a kind soul she was,” Runzer said. “So, it really became personal.”

For flight attendants, Runzer says the camaraderie runs deep, and working with someone for just a few flights fosters a connection. She said she attended the funeral of Flight 93 purser Deborah Jacobs Welsh with colleagues, a moment that allowed them to grieve together.

By 2006, when her older son was getting ready for kindergarten, what Runzer had expected to be one or two years in the skies became 18. She left flying for a role that would allow her more time to attend baseball and soccer games on the weekends. Already holding a degree in elementary education, Runzer pivoted to teaching, wearing her old flight wings on the first 9/11 anniversary of her new job. When asked about them, she simply told students that she had lost colleagues that day.

That first year, a student approached Runzer at the end of the day. “She came up to me before she walked out for her bus and she said, ‘Can I give you a hug? I’m sorry about your friends.’ And that’s when I realized, OK, I could probably go a little further next year. So the next year I did, I just went a little bit further with the story of the people that I was connected to.”

As her 9/11 lessons evolved and attracted attendance from more students and even district administrators, Runzer hesitated to make herself part of the story, and kept the focus on her colleagues and the day’s events. Seeking more clarity in her lessons, Runzer attended a symposium for 40 Pennsylvania educators at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville this past June. The application process, she said, was a big first step.

“It did bring up a lot of emotions from the past, and it helped me to actually think back to the people I knew and why it’s important to share this with my students.”

Melissa Nelson, assistant professor of practice at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, an organizer of the symposium, said objectives included helping teachers teach students about 9/11, but also teach other teachers.

“The majority of the educators who were there have a lived memory experience. They could say exactly where they were, exactly what they were doing,” Nelson said. “But we also had a handful of people who were either teenagers and remembered aspects of it, or were too young to remember or weren’t born.”

Over two-and-a-half days, the teachers heard first-hand accounts from Flight 93 family members and discussed events and major themes like courage.

Since then, Runzer and elementary-level symposium colleagues have turned the stories of four Flight 93 heroes, including Runzer’s former colleague Lorraine Bay, into a lesson plan to be shared with other teachers, that underscores age-appropriate takeaways like kindness, responsibility, and courage.

“I  tell  the  kids, you  can  be  an  everyday  superhero too,” Runzer said.

A lesson slide with a smiling photo of Bay highlights courage and responsibility, and notes that she extended kindness to passengers on Flight 93 even while facing a great challenge. The lesson plan asks students, “How can we make others feel welcome, even if we don’t know them well?”

Runzer will attend this year’s memorial at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville on September 11. The day prior, she’ll share her personal story with students.

“I get to spread the word and let kids know I have that connection, in the hopes that they’ll start to feel a connection too.”

And when she returns from Shanksville, she’ll present the lesson plan constructed as a result of the summer symposium, hoping to keep a promise she made to the Flight 93 families she met.

“If we can remember one thing about their family, learn one fact about their family member, it will keep that family member’s memory alive.”

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