On the Thursday, September 10, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: How do you teach one of the most defining moments in modern American history to students who weren't alive to experience it? Dexter Southfield Head of School Peter Folan joins The Excerpt to discuss the challenge of teaching 9/11 to a generation with no memory of the attacks. Through the story of Welles Crowther, the "Man in the Red Bandana," and other lessons in courage and community, Folan explains how educators are ensuring the lessons of 9/11 are passed to future generations.
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Dana Taylor:
If you were born after 9/11, everything you know about that day comes from someone else. So how do teachers help students understand not just what happened, but also why it still matters? 25 years after the attacks, an entire generation is encountering September 11th as history rather than memory. Educators are searching for ways to make one of the most defining moments in modern American history feel real to students who never lived through it.
Jude:
I think there is a sort of disconnect. We're one of the first generations, age groups to not be alive during 9/11. I think most of the people around us can tell us where they are during that moment. And for me, that's not relatable. Obviously, I don't remember that.
Ingrid:
It was obviously tragic, but it also gave us a feeling of community, just seeing how people came together after the fact to both grieve, but also celebrate people like first responders and people like Welles Crowther.
Brooke:
Hearing about how the world changed after that has always resonated with me, hearing how airport security has changed after that because my whole life I've just grown up with the same security, understanding why things are put in place. But for the longest time nobody knew something like this, a terrorist attack could be possible and could affect the country.
Steven:
I mean, being a hero is just more about doing the right thing. So I feel like any situation, it doesn't matter if you're walking in Boston, helping somebody out. I feel like just being a hero is just leading by example, but also doing it out of love, not for cameras, not for show. I feel like it's just sticking up to the moment and doing what's right.
Dana Taylor:
Hello and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, September 10th, 2026. Those were students at Dexter Southfield at school outside Boston. Peter Folan is the head of the school and has worked in education for more than 30 years. It's so good to have you here, Peter.
Peter Folan:
It's great to be here with you, Dana.
Dana Taylor:
Peter, today students were born, as I said, years after the attacks on September 11th. Why is it important for them to learn about that day now?
Peter Folan:
Well, history matters. I think we're living in a time and place where students want to understand the history of our country, and in particular, this day transformed all of our lives. Those of us that lived through this moment, we remember where we were on that ordinary morning with that beautiful blue sky and trying to make meaning of something that was unimaginable. Our kids today are trying to understand that as well, teaching our students not what the tragedies that happened in that moment, but what happened afterwards, how people came together, neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers, and all those that rushed into a tragedy and tried to help. And I think for our students in particular, those are the lessons that we're focusing on here as an institution, and those are the lessons that I think our students are really hungry for.
Dana Taylor:
What do students typically know about 9/11 before your lessons begin? Have you found there are things they tend to misunderstand?
Peter Folan:
Yeah, it's interesting. As we talk to our students, one would think social media would be destroying their knowledge of it, but in a lot of ways our students are gaining a lot of information from video clips that they're seeing, stories that they're capturing online of small ordinary people in extraordinary moments. I'm not sure that students have a total understanding of what we went through in that moment as people, as adults, but they can begin to grasp the impacts of that moment. They're very much interested in the heroes of that day. I think it's easy for kids today to become cynical, to not recognize the heroism that surrounds us in each and every moment. And 9/11 does provide that opportunity for extraordinarily ordinary people to stand out and to demonstrate what's really the best of our country and the best of people in the most difficult moments.
Dana Taylor:
You've called the lessons part of our historical inheritance. What did you mean by that? And does that inheritance come with responsibility?
Peter Folan:
Yeah, absolutely. History matters. We think about the story of Welles Crowther that our students are learning about. Welles was only six years older than our current seniors. He was a lacrosse player. He went to Boston College, which is a school that's just right up the street from us. And our students can begin to see in him someone that was ordinary, that got up in that morning, who put his equity trader hat on. And in that moment that we all imagined that could happen, he did the unimaginable. He stopped, he took off that equity trader hat, he put that red bandana on, and he went about to save people. And once he had let a group out, he went back inside to save some more. That's a stunning story of heroism, and it's a story of an ordinary person who did something spectacular, and that's what's really drawing our students into it.
Growing up in Boston, Boston College is not too far away. They've celebrated the Red Bandana game for years. There's been a Welles Crowther Red Bandana 5K run as well that some of our students had participated in. The Dropkick Murphys have a song about Welles. So he has taken on a greater meaning in this area. And to delve into a book written about him, The Man in the Red Bandana, the Rinaldi book, that's helpful for our students, watching that ESPN documentary, that's helpful for our students. And to go through a series of readings about Wells, who he was as a son, as a brother, as a ordinary person, I think that's helping our students to aspire to be something greater than what they can recognize in this moment.
I think that's a lost art. I think that's where history really does matter. We live in a time and place where politics can be so divisive, and I think ordinary people who do extraordinary things is what our kids need to focus on, what they can control in a singular moment in a small area and the impact that they could have, even if we start within our own school community and then think about those ripples to a larger community, maybe than our state and eventually our country and the world. But right now at 14 years old, that's a daunting task.
We're pre-K through 12 schools, so we're teaching our youngest students about the Survivor Tree that was damaged and burned and that was grown back and now is planted at Ground Zero. That's a powerful story of resilience for our youngest students. For our middle schoolers, we're talking about how character is built over time, and in our high school, our oldest students are thinking about what is the responsibility that I'm called to lead in my own life given the opportunities that I have been presented with? I think that's a powerful way for us to think about that inheritance and that impact of history that can have on us and how we carry that forward.
Dana Taylor:
You've touched on this, but how do you focus on the stunning heroism of 9/11 and platforming that along with explaining the hatred and violence behind the attacks without overwhelming younger students? And how do you grapple with not reducing the lesson to a one-note tragedy?
Peter Folan:
Yeah, I think it's really hard in a pre-K through 12 school. I think the developmental differences of our elementary school students are very different than our middle schoolers and our high schoolers. I think thinking in our younger grades about the helpers, about the people who choose to help others in those moments, I think that's a valuable lesson for us. It's very hard for a lower school student to understand the idea of hatred and how that was displayed in 3,000 deaths that day, but they can always recognize those people that are there to help them.
I think in the middle school, it's a little bit easier for them to understand how violence occurs and where that comes from and to even think about that that was an attack on our country and on our soil. I think that's important for our students to recognize. .And in our high school, what I like to focus on with those students is that inheritance of how they're carrying forward those lessons, those moments of heroism. And I try not to focus as much on the terror attack that day. While it's important and they can understand that, we do have a high school elective on 9/11 that we do teach here as a school, and so students are able to really dive into all of the aspects that led up into the attack and then the fallout from that as well.
We actually have a faculty member, her spouse went and fought in Iraq after that and then lost his life from a lot of what he picked up from the environment in that area. So it's an area that hits close to home in our school and we're not looking at it in any one way, but trying to think about it in a totality of the experience for the students and to do that in a developmentally appropriate way.
Dana Taylor:
One clear theme in your curriculum is how Americans responded in the aftermath of the attacks. Why is that part of the story an essential part of the history you want students to understand?
Peter Folan:
When I think back on that time and place, I was a young teacher, I was making copies in the faculty room when the radio stopped playing music and talked about that moment. I think it's really easy to think about the horror in that day and all of the lives that are lost. But what I always remember in my heart is how people rallied together, how strangers share car rides, how ferry boats and regular people transported close to a half million people off the island that day. I think that's powerful.
I think in our world, we need more moments where our students can think about how we come together and think about what unites us instead of always focusing on what can divide us. I think that's so important. In that moment in time and place in this country, I'm not sure we were ever stronger and more united as a nation, and I think that's powerful.
I always think of George Bush throwing out that opening pitch in Yankee Stadium and how electric that was in our country. I think about the firefighters who were running into that building, those that stayed after to search the rubble. Those are powerful images and I think our students need to see that and begin to see what brings us together as a nation. And it's really easy in life to focus on the moments that separate us. I think students still need that idealism. We have to cultivate that in their heart and we can't let that ember really ever burn out. And I think it is our responsibility as educators to ensure that idealism is continued to be stoked and inspired in pre-K, elementary, middle, and high schoolers. And if we don't do that, we can really lose our students' hearts and minds and they can give into a world of cynicism, which I don't think is helpful.
Dana Taylor:
It's now been 25 years and it can be easy to become numb to historic moments. Can you talk about the importance of giving students positive role models like Welles? What do you want them to consider when they learn about someone like him?
Peter Folan:
It's easy right now, if we think about our role models, it's really easy to pull people down. And I think Welles isn't perfect, and I think that's why he really inspires our students. When they read the novel written about him, Welles was just an all-American high schooler and college student who went off and had a great existence. And in the moment when things were difficult, in those darkest moments, his light shone the brightest. I think students can respond to that in a really powerful way because he is accessible. So many of our students here have grown up in the Marvel movies and having them understand that not all heroes wear capes does matter to, that there are an ordinary people who do these extraordinary things. And Welles epitomizes that. I think he's a true American hero, and I think his mother is too. I can't imagine 25 years she's been out telling his story, the impact that he had, the lives that he saved, that's powerful for these kids.
And I think that the fact that Welles died so young, students can look at the image of him in his Boston College jersey and begin to see themselves in that moment. Both the young women and the young men can see and recognize something in that smile and in that small gift of the father in that red bandana as something that's attainable. That's why I love that story so much. And I love that in that moment of tragedy, Alison took on the decision to shape the world and to tell people about what heroism means, what is to sacrifice oneself, what is courage. And I do think we have to be intentional as educators to also think about character and how we shape that in our students, the role models that we provide and the lessons that we connect into those, I do think those things begin to take shape in the hearts of our students, and I do think that's impactful.
Dana Taylor:
Peter, I know that coming up with this curriculum was not an easy task. Have your lessons evolved over time?
Peter Folan:
Absolutely. I think for me, I've been doing this as an educator really since 2002, thinking about how do I talk about and teach this moment. I've compared Gettysburg Address to Bush's address, and as he addressed the nation. I've thought about it in terms of speeches. I think that's one way that we can do it. We can think about looking at it from the ideas of those helpers. But for me, the story of Welles has always just resonated for me because of how accessible that is. And I think for kids, being able to put a face in a story, in a name, and maybe most importantly, a symbol into that equation really allows that to take root.
I've been doing this for a long time. I've known Alison Crowther for many, many years, and the impact that she can have on students by telling that story is transformational for a group of young people. And I think students really do need this to begin to say to themselves, "I can get up in the morning, I can live a life, and in the moment when it's required of me, I can do what's right." And that's not something I think kids can hear enough in today's world.
Dana Taylor:
Finally, Peter, 25 years from now, what do you hope today's students will still carry with them from these lessons?
Peter Folan:
Well, as Alison prepares to address our students, I'm going to remind them that this is oral history, that this is a time and place where they're listening to a woman who raised an American hero, and it's going to be on them to take those lessons, embed them in their hearts, and share those with their children and their grandchildren. My father fought in World War II, all of my uncles enlisted after Pearl Harbor, and that was a defining moment in my father's generation that I heard of time and time again. September 11th was a defining moment in our generation, and I think it's important that these students take this oral history and they pass this down and not focus on what hatred can tear down, but focusing on what goodness can do to raise things up in a dark moment.
Dana Taylor:
Peter, I so appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. Thank you.
Peter Folan:
Thank you very much.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Tomorrow we'll conclude the special week of 9/11 stories with my colleagues, Mike Kelly and Tom Franklin. Together, they'll discuss the iconic photograph that for much of the world symbolizes the heroism of 9/11. It shows three fire charred and exhausted firemen on the pile at Ground Zero raising the American flag. We hope you'll join us.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The challenge of teaching 9/11 to kids | The Excerpt
