September 11, 2001: UW-Stevens Point class incorporates 9/11 anniversary into veterans’ class
By Holly Chilsen
A first-year seminar at UW-Stevens Point uses the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to engage student veterans.
David Chrisinger is an associate lecturer in the history department. His class called “Back from the Front” is going on its third year.
Students spend 16 weeks learning the history of veterans coming home from war and also do a lot of reflective writing.
Chrisinger said many of his students were in elementary school when the 2001 attacks happened.
“It’s not so much me telling them what they need to know about 9/11, it’s facilitating their own research and their own discovery and their own understanding and helping them make sense of what they went through, through a historical lens,” Chrisinger said.
He said for some of his students, 9/11 was a big reason why they joined the military.
His class also discusses if the tactics used in the war that followed are working and if they think the U.S. is on the right course or not.
