9/11 places more emphasis on education

As hard as it is to find any good outcomes that resulted from the tragic events, many people believe that Americans have grown stronger and feel a greater sense of responsibility to their country and educating their children.

“A greater global awareness along with a sense of responsibility as Americans to the rest of the world,” said DePaolo on positive effects of Sept. 11. “I think we are all just trying to get through this first one and it’s not going to be easy it’s going to be tough.”

Global awareness has become a priority in and out of the classroom. Teaching Americans about foreign affairs could possibly lessen their fears and increase their involvement in the community.

“People need to stand together, and they need to be more involved in our country and in their government and in their world. I guess a lot of us have been shocked out of a sense of complacency,” Dr. Bruce Harshbarger, vice president of Student Affairs said.

The events of Sept. 11 forced many children to grow up faster than they should have and to learn that we, as a nation, are not invincible. A year after, educating the children of Sept. 11 is a priority among many Americans. President DePaolo’s goals for Georgia College & State University have not changed dramatically, but instead have become reinforced.

“They have simply become stronger,” DePaolo said. “Our mission as a liberal arts university is so tied to creating people to become foundations of our democracy, which is based on the notion that educating people is important, because it creates citizens who have free minds and can resist oppression.”

Dr. Harshbarger has created a new mission for the GC&SU campus, one based on learning from the events that took place on Sept. 11.

“One of the things that we will be promoting this year is a three-cornerstone theme that unites learning in and out of the classroom. One of those themes is global issues and diversity,” Harshbarger said. “I think if anything we now know that you cannot live in the 21st century without an awareness of global issues and an awareness of diversity of human beings. Given that our mission is a liberal arts college, I think that makes me feel even more strongly in that the kind of education that we are offering.”

Even one year after the tragedy, Americans still feel the pain of the great loss to our nation. We understand that the terrorists hate America, but many are still not ready to ask why they hate our nation. Harshbarger believes that some students judgements of the events are still clouded, because of how strongly the tragedy affected them.

“The one thing that I haven’t seen as much of, and I attribute it to the fact that the wounds are still very new, is a sense from students that they want to make a critical analysis of where some of the hostility towards the United States comes from, what triggers it and how we are viewed abroad by those who support us as well as those who attack us. I think that’s a hard thing to do when you are hurting so badly,” he said.

One year after the attacks, people feel the need to remember and to commemorate the victims of Sept. 11. Kappa Sigma Fraternity, Gamma Sigma Sigma, and several Christian organizations on campus teamed together to create a service that truly expressed the feelings of GC&SU students.

“We all want the memorial service to be meaningful and a way for us to unite and I think it will be,” DePaolo said. “I am particularly proud of the Kappa Sigma fraternity for taking the lead on this, months ago.”

The University has been discussing having a memorial service for Sept. 11 [every year] to highlight the terrorists attacks.

“I think there ought to be one for quite some time,” Harshbarger said. “This is sometimes compared to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and I think about how that’s observed every year and how I don’t think that people who weren’t alive then really change what they are doing on Dec. 7. I wasn’t alive then, but I don’t think that a Dec. 7 goes by that I am not aware that it is Pearl Harbor day. I would anticipate for as long as I am here on this campus there will be would probably see observances of it.”

DePaolo has noticed a slight change in students possibly due to 9/11.

“I don’t know there is any way you can judge if people have become more reflective, but certainly, students seem more serious to me and maybe that is a result of 9/11. I think we’ve all realized in the last year what’s important to us,” she said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 13 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry