The symposium for K-12 educators aims to serve as a national model for teaching 9/11 education

"It's all about the collective, not the one."

Those remarks by Ken Nacke bring a larger national context to a very personal matter. His older brother, Louis "Joey" Nacke II, was one of 33 passengers and 7 crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Their heroism in fighting back against hijackers-and the democratic process that led to their mid-flight revolt-was part of the Flight 93 Educator Symposium held from June 22-24 at the national memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The first-ever gathering was brought by the Flight 93 National Memorial, Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, the National Park Service, and University of Pittsburgh School of Education Assistant Professor of Practice Melissa Nelson.

The symposium offered13 sessions covering teaching with courage, vulnerability, and intention; how to interact with visual and physical artifacts from the event; and hearing firsthand perspectives from family members of those lost in the attacks.

Forty Pennsylvania educators were selected in honor of the 40 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, and the educators spanned K-12 levels. Staff at the national memorial say the ideas and lessons generated at the symposium could serve as a national model for 9/11 education.

"As we approach the 25-year observance of September 11th, there is now an entire generation of students and educators who were not alive when these events occurred," Donna Gibson, executive director of the Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, told the group of educators.

"That makes your role essential. You are the bridge between history and understanding. Between memory and meaning. And through you, the stories of their courage and sacrifice will continue to live on," she said.

The partnership with the School of Education was nearly a year in the making, after Gibson and Adam Shaffer, National Park Service chief of interpretation and education, came across an article in USA Today quoting Nelson on teaching 9/11 to youth.

Nelson recalled the interview and a question about how teaching about 9/11 has changed over time. She says she knew her answer immediately.

"For many of us, September 11th is a deeply ingrained memory based on a lived experience," she told her colleagues. "For our students, it is history read in a textbook, watched from a video, scrolled past on a post on a social media feed ,or heard from a story of a parent or a grandparent."

A Window Into History

For the 40 selected educators, arriving at the Flight 93 National Memorial wasn't just an orientation-it was an immersion.

Betsy Keene, curator for all five Western Pennsylvania National Parks sites,led participants through the memorial's collection guided by the conviction that objects carry stories that no textbook can replicate.

"These objects tie me to the story and make it real in a way that sitting in a classroom and learning about it doesn't always do," Keene told the group.

The Flight 93 collection consists of tributes left by visitors, materials donated by families and investigators, recovered airplane artifacts, and an extensive oral history collection. Each category, she explained, offers educators a distinct entry point into the story.

Keene told teachers that curators have an obligation not just to preserve but to connect.

"Collecting is a duty to the future, and interpretation is a duty to the present," she said.

She also challenged educators to consider who the collection is for-families, students, the general public-and how the objects can help young people put themselves inside the story.

Voices of the 40

In one of the symposium's most powerful sessions, four family members of the Flight 93 passengers and crew sat for a panel discussion to discuss courage.

Gordon Felt, brother of passenger Edward Porter Felt, said courage is a lifelong pursuit that gains its relevance beginning with the classroom.

"Character is not just turned on and off. It's learned early," Felt said. "As teachers and educators, you've got the opportunity to start your students on that road to developing their character-encouraging them to make tough choices, to do what's right, to understand right from wrong, to stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves."

Ed Root, cousin of flight attendant Lorraine G. Bay encouraged educators to stop using the word "victim" when teaching Flight 93.

"You could say at 9:30 [a.m.] they were victims," Root said. "By 10:03, they were no longer that."

Root also issued a call for greater attention in schools. "When you look in textbooks, you might see two paragraphs that deal with September 11th." At this moment, his voice picked up in volume. "Keep talking. That's why we're so passionate about telling this story."

For Nacke, the way to help students connect with the 40 passengers is through specificity. He encouraged educators to ask their students to learn one small, human detail about each person on the plane.

He offered an example from his brother, Joey.

"My brother had a Superman tattoo on his arm," he said, and had suffered a serious arm injury as a child. Years later as an adult, Joey went to a tattoo shop and had Superman inked directly above the scar.

"Those little things show your students that these were just regular people. Ordinary people doing an extraordinary deed," Nacke said.

Patrick White, a retired attorney and cousin of passenger Louis J. Nacke II, brought the session's themes back to a single phrase-and an anecdote about civic engagement.

"Look at the diversity that was on that flight," White said. "And those passengers didn't look at that diversity as a wedge-it was a weapon. They were able to come together. I think our country needs to hear that message."

What Teachers Took Home

The 40 educators at the symposium came from across Pennsylvania, but many shared a conviction about the importance of keeping this moment in American history relevant for the future.

John Frasca, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Marshall Middle School in the North Allegheny School District, came away from the experience with the long-valued sentiment of representative government.

"I teach about the founding of our country and how we became a democracy," he said. "Flight 93-the passengers voted. Just the very thing we do every four years, every two years. People still voted when their lives were in jeopardy on that plane. And look what it did."

His colleague and wife, Emily Frasca, was also selected for the symposium. She teaches 11th and 12th grade history at North Allegheny Senior High School and was taken aback by the candor and grace of the family members during the panel.

"History's taught best by the people who lived it," she said. "There's not a book I could read that's going to be better than hearing it from a person who's directly connected to that airplane."

Jeff Tripodi (MAT '07), a social studies teacher and gifted education coordinator at Blackhawk High School in Beaver Falls, echoed Emily Frasca's thoughts.

"There's an authenticity you can bring into the classroom that you can only get from witnessing or experiencing something," Tripodi said. "I'm lucky enough to be able to tell students what it feels like to look up at the balcony of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was shot. Or what it feels like to be an American in Hiroshima. You can't get that out of a book."

Tripodi said the symposium has already reshaped how he plans to teach the events of September 11th-including through a new project in which students deconstruct the memorial's symbolism and then design their own memorial for a different historical event.

A Legacy Carried Through Education

The wall panels at the Flight 93 National Memorial known as the Wall of Names, Gordon Felt noted, are designed to appear as one seamless structure from a distance. Up close, each panel is separate-40 distinct pieces arranged to appear unified.

"That is by design and intent," Felt explained, "because although they were 40 individuals, they acted collectively."

He hopes educators embrace that sense of collective responsibility.

"Your challenges are so much greater than any of us, perhaps, have faced in creating this memorial," Felt said. "Because it's truly in your hands to pass on their story and their legacy."