What does it mean to inherit a story, and once it has been entrusted to us, what responsibility do we have for what happens next?

Those questions were at the center of a new seventh-grade experience at the Flight 93 National Memorial this fall, and they will continue to follow Valley School students through the remainder of seventh and into their eighth-grade year.

The visit marks the start of a series of experiences focused on two ideas: legacy and stewardship.  In preparing for the experience, students learned to think of legacy as what has been left behind for us: ideas, institutions, sacrifices, places, and traditions; and stewardship as the responsibility of caring for, learning from, preserving, or improving what we have inherited.

Those ideas gave students a framework for approaching not only the history they would encounter at Flight 93, but also the larger questions their teachers wanted them to consider throughout the experience.  Three questions would guide them:

Remember: What is being remembered?

Understand: Why has it been preserved?

Respond: What responsibility might we have because of it?

The Flight 93 Memorial experience was designed to move students beyond learning what happened on September 11, 2001.

Before the visit, students began studying the history and considering the ideas of legacy and stewardship.  At the memorial, their teachers deliberately asked them to slow down and notice.

In the museum, students searched for a story they had learned, a person they wanted to remember, a choice the museum had made about memory, something that surprised them, and a question they still had.  The goal was not to complete a worksheet.  It was to collect evidence and consider a larger question: What does this museum help us remember that we might otherwise forget?

Outside, the landscape itself became part of the lesson.

Students considered what was visible and what was absent, what seemed natural and what had been intentionally preserved or created.  They experienced the Tower of Voices and considered how sound, place, and absence can communicate that words or photographs alone cannot.

Along the way, history became personal.

A veteran visiting the memorial spoke with members of the Valley School group about his military service, the people he had lost, and his experience at the Pentagon on September 11.  A park ranger challenged students to understand the importance of preserving local, state, and national history and reminded them that their own actions have consequences.

His message captured much of what Valley School teachers hoped the students would take from the experience:

“The choices you make today change the world tomorrow.”

The learning did not end when the students finished walking through the memorial.

They wrote. They reflected. They talked.

In a poetry workshop titled What We Inherit, students were asked to use concrete details from the day, a sound, a landscape feature, an object, a physical space, or an observed movement to explore what we inherit from the past and what we choose to leave behind.

Those observations then become evidence for a Core Values Conversation about legacy, memory, and responsibility.  Valley School’s application of the Harkness method helps students to move beyond “What happened?” to questions without simple answers:

Why do we preserve particular stories?

Who decides what becomes part of our collective memory?

Can a memorial tell us a true story while still telling only part of the story?

If history is something we inherit, what does it mean to be a good steward of it?

Is remembering enough?

The progression is intentional: What happened? - What do we remember? - How was it remembered? - What have we inherited? - What will we do with it? - What will we leave behind?

The Flight 93 Memorial trip is important in its own right, but within Valley School’s Upper School curriculum, it is also the beginning of something larger.

The goal is to create a meaningful thread that connects signature experiences across seventh and eighth grades, rather than allowing each to stand alone.

For seventh graders, the journey begins close to home at the Flight 93 Memorial. It continues through classroom study, writing, reflection, and Core Values Conversations before culminating in their signature trip to Washington, D.C. in May.

As eighth graders, students encounter questions of legacy, responsibility, community, and stewardship again through experiences including the Day of Caring, their study and visit to Gettysburg, and their culminating week-long signature experience to an international or domestic location.

The places change. The historical periods change. The scale changes.

The questions, however, travel with them.

What have others left for us?

Whose stories do we remember?

What responsibilities come with what we have inherited?

How do our choices affect people beyond ourselves?

And ultimately: What will we leave behind?

Creating an experience like this also illustrates an important aspect of teaching at Valley School.

The Flight 93 experience began with an idea from Mrs. Sarah Fichter, seventh- and eighth-grade English Language Arts teacher, who brought it to Mr. Marcus Croley, seventh- and eighth-grade Social Studies teacher and Dean of Upper School.  Through their collaboration, the idea grew into something larger: an interdisciplinary experience that brought history, literature, poetry, discussion, personal experience, and reflection together around a common purpose.

For Mrs. Sarah Fichter, that ability to imagine something new, bring ideas to colleagues, and then learn alongside students is part of what makes teaching at Valley School meaningful and rewarding.  The preparation itself prompted faculty members to research, ask new questions, reconsider assumptions, and deepen their own understanding.

That collaboration matters.

As does having the flexibility to say, there is an extraordinary historical site in our own region.  How can we make it more than just a visit? How can we connect it to what students are learning now, to experiences they will have months from now, and ultimately to the people they hope to become?

Experiences like this are possible because a Valley School education extends beyond any single classroom, subject, teacher, or trip.

They require faculty members who have the freedom to collaborate and create. They require transportation and resources. They require time for students to explore ideas deeply rather than move on to the next lesson. And they require a school community willing to invest in educational opportunities whose impact may unfold over months and years.

Annual support helps Valley School provide the people, programs, resources, and opportunities that make this kind of teaching and learning possible. A gift to the Valley Fund does not simply support one trip or one lesson. It helps create an environment in which talented educators can connect disciplines, develop new experiences, and invite students to think more deeply about themselves and the world around them.