The United States once seemed invincible, impenetrable, and indestructible; we beat the world power Great Britain and survived settling uninhabitable land. This was disproven not once, not twice, but multiple times in American history. The first time was Pearl Harbor and brought the United States into World War I. Another time occurred when the U.S. was hit a little closer to home. It happened just fourteen years ago on September 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center came crumbling down.

The conflict now is whether or not schools should honor this tragedy and the men and women who died saving lives by teaching students and insuring future generation remember.

This year at Perry many returning students may have realized a change from last year. This is because it is the first year that Principal Dan Serrano has mandated that every teacher participate in honoring 9/11.

“We’re going to do a moment of silence,” Serrano stated, “We’re going to play God Bless America and there is a four minute video that all the teachers are going to show.”

Some teachers even talked about where they were on 9/11 when the twin towers came down.

“I think not teaching 9/11 is a travesty,” math teacher Linda Moon explained.

Not only should people honor the loss of life but “how beautiful it was the next day when everyone on my street was out that night with candles and hung up their flags and parties from both sides of congress came together on the steps to sing God Bless America.”

It is conversations like these that help convey to students who weren’t alive or were too young to remember 9/11 and the unifying power it had on the U.S.

“We should acknowledge the fact that it happened,” senior Frank Servin said, “there is so much legislation and laws that were created because of 9/11 and it changed the landscape of what we know as the modern day United States.”

Teaching about 9/11 doesn’t just include the laws that came from it but it is a life lesson as well.

“Nothing in our curriculum no matter what subject you teach is more important than instilling values in kids” history teacher Jeff Gurecki stated.“So it doesn’t matter what subject you are teaching, life lessons are more important than one day curriculum lessons and this is a day where we can teach life lessons.”

Despite being a major blow that will be forever etched into American history, it unified us as a nation, and should be a day that is remembered should a tragedy ever happen again.