For Years, 9/11 Was Something Students Lived. Today, It’s a History Lesson

George Mason University professor Meredith Lair has been teaching history for 27 years — but it wasn’t until the late 2010s that she started to feel the September 11, 2001, terror attacks had shifted from something students had lived, to a history event that needed to be taught.

“It didn’t really feel like history, so much as it was this pervasive factor in our lives for a long time,” she said.