SEMO professor helps younger generation understand impact of 9/11

FOX23 News at 9 p.m

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., (KBSI) — Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, many college students know that day only through history books, videos and stories shared by those who lived through it.

Southeast Missouri State University history professor Adam Criblez says that shift has changed how he teaches the attacks and their lasting impact.

When Criblez began teaching at SEMO in 2012, many of his students were young children when the attacks happened. Some still had vague memories of the day. Today’s college students were not yet born.

To bridge that divide, Criblez begins by asking students to identify the first major national event they remember.

“I try to get them to think about things in their own life that were significant national milestones that may help them understand why people who were alive during 9/11 can remember where they were when they first heard about it, what they did, what they were doing at the time,” Criblez said.

Criblez remembers watching television when the network interrupted its regular programming with news of the attacks. He sometimes shows students that broadcast along with images of the World Trade Center towers collapsing and people running from the debris.

He said the footage helps students understand how suddenly the attacks unfolded and why those who witnessed them can still recall specific details from that morning.

“I want them to get that sense of suddenness, and that all of a sudden, like, the world changed,” Criblez said.

He then uses a more familiar and unexpected example to show how that change continues to affect daily life.

Criblez shows his class a scene from the movie “Home Alone” in which the family rushes through an airport, reaches the gate and quickly boards its flight. He asks students to compare the scene with what they experience at airports today.

“How is that different than your experience on an airplane today?” Criblez asks students. “Did they have to go through security? Did they have to take their shoes off through security? Are they checking their passports?”

The comparison helps students recognize how airport procedures and the experience of flying changed after 9/11, even though today’s travelers may view those measures as routine.

Criblez also teaches students about the broader social effects of the attacks. He discusses the shared patriotism that brought many Americans together, including an increase in American flags, patriotic messages and church attendance.

At the same time, he explains how Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent faced blame, discrimination and exclusion because of the actions of the terrorists.

Criblez connects that response to other periods in American history when entire groups were judged by the actions of a limited number of people, including the treatment of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

He said those comparisons help students see history as more than a series of dates and events.

“So that’s a big thing, is trying to make it relevant, trying to have something that they can recognize in their own lives,” Criblez said. “Otherwise, history just seems like something that happened a long time ago and doesn’t really matter to them.”

Criblez said the 25th anniversary gives the country an opportunity to remember those who experienced 9/11 while helping younger generations understand how the attacks continue to shape American life.

“I think it’s always important to remember the past,” Criblez said. “Commemorating 25 years since this event is good nationally to reflect and have those moments of remembrance.”