for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham. >> yang: the public can share stories, see photos and artifactswatch discussions on the national museum of american history's website, www.americanhistory.si.edu. >> yang: for their first assignment of the school year, high school journalists from our network of student reporting labs asked educators in their schools about the significance of teaching 9/11, what the events meant to them, and why it's important to study the history before and after that day. >> for my generation, i mean, this was a defining moment of our childhood. and so, that fear that, like, it could potentially happen again, is kind of always there. >> our whole sense of normalcy had been snatched away from us in a matter of about five minutes. >> you guys are, you know, one of the first generations to be born after 9/11. and so, for you, it's kind of more abstract. >> every year, when it comes to 9/11 and teachers start mentioning it, the kids kind of roll their eyes. like, we already talked about this year, you know, about this. which is probably what i did about world war ii