COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — Students at Lewis Central Middle School spent Wednesday learning about September 11, a day that unfolded ten years before most of them were born. Meanwhile, Mary Ann Hanusa was working in the White House West Wing for the George W. Bush administration. She witnessed history in a way that few did that day.
- "I remember hearing a colleague behind me, as we were running, say 'There's a plane headed for the White House,'" Hanusa said.
- For teachers like Burk, the challenge is to make that national tragedy come alive for kids who didn't experience it. Using multi-media tools, he encouraged them to think about the leadership lessons.
- I asked Hanusa, what she hopes young people will understand about 9/11: "It so shocked the nation that it brought people together. And I know that maybe sounds a little cliche but it, it truly did. People put aside their pettiness, they put aside their differences because now all of a sudden people had a common, we were united by that common tragedy."
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Maryann Hanusa worked in the West Wing of the White House on 9/11. Lewis Central middle-schoolers wouldn't be born for another 10 years.
I'm your Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel.
As time moves forward, just how are young people learning about Sept. 11 and the lessons from that day?
A student in Ryan Burk's 7th grade social studies class told me, 9/11 seems like a long, long time ago.
But Council Bluffs neighbor Mary Ann Hanusa lived it and from a perspective few had.
"So, I exited the West Wing. And there was a secret service agent standing there and he said, you need to run and you need to get to the other side of the park," she said.
Hanusa managed official correspondence for the George W. Bush administration, but on that day, after watching planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, she fled the White House with her colleagues.
"I remember hearing a colleague behind me, as we were running, say 'There's a plane headed for the White House,'" Hanusa said.
For teachers like Burk, the challenge is to make that national tragedy come alive for kids who didn't experience it. Using multi-media tools, he encouraged them to think about the leadership lessons.
Vincent Messinger, 7th grader: "Like the president, he reacted to it very well. Just to like, not scare everyone."
Leighton Carr, 7th grade: "Well, there were a lot of heroes who risked their life to help a lot of other people. And they tried to stay calm even though it was really scary."
I asked Hanusa, what she hopes young people will understand about 9/11.
"It so shocked the nation that it brought people together,” Hanusa said. “And I know that maybe sounds a little cliche but it, it truly did. People put aside their pettiness, they put aside their differences because now all of a sudden people had a common, we were united by that common tragedy."
She worked nearly eight years for the administration, spearheading an effort to save artifacts from the attack. The bullhorn President Bush used during a famous, speech at ground zero on Sept. 14 even sat in her office.
