BUFFALO, N.Y. — Everyone who was alive remembers where they were when they heard about the September 11th terror attacks.
Teachers who cover the subject in schools have had to adjust their lesson plans as their students no longer have personal memories of the day.
Shyam Sriram Ph.D., the director of political science at Canisius University.
He challenges his students to think deeply about the legacy the day will leave behind.
"Getting students to ponder, what does it look like to commemorate 9/11? And a great discussion question I've been using for the last couple of years, I just did it today also is, should 9/11 be a national holiday? Because there are some people who say it should others say it should be a day of service," Sriram said, "I said you're like 18-19, the argument is like 30 years from now how should 9/11 be remembered."
John Tomerlin produced a video for Cattaraugus County called "What Vets Want you to Know about 9/11".
The video shares the history of 9/11 including what led up to the day, and the events afterward.
He interviewed men and women who recount their personal stories and memories, bringing that to the next generation.
Tomerlin said, "I thought to myself, these things really need to get into the classrooms, we really have to connect our veterans to the classrooms because what these folks have gone through is just so important,".
The video follows the events that day, told by a local history teacher. The video is designed to be part of a larger class-wide discussion on 9/11.
Tomerlin said, "We can provide them with a really condensed summary of everything and then there will be time for discussion after the video is over."
Jacob Stillman teaches 8th-grade history.
He was in 6th grade, living just outside of Washington D.C. when 9/11 happened. Both of his parents worked for the Department of State.
He shares his personal stories from school that day with his students. What he and his classmates felt when they first heard the news, "I went into lunch, thinking my mom has died as part of the attacks, not knowing what had happened until literally I happened to get a tap on my shoulder during lunch and my mom was standing there in front of me picking me up."
His mother snapped a photo of the Capital flag flying at half staff, the Sunday after the attack.
Stillman remembers how eerily quiet it was the next few days and the fear they had when fighter jets flew over their baseball game.
"That fear of what's happening now, is this going to happen again, things like that, it really reaches our students who weren't alive at the time by making it human instead of something that's coming from a text or textbook of things like that," Stillman said.
"I'm trying to get my students to understand that, it's still there, and we will always have those memories."