Since Sept. 11, 2001, the daily “Pledge of Allegiance” at school has meant more to fourth-grader Mia Phillips.

A student at Broken Arrow School in Lawrence, Phillips said she has come to reflect upon the meaning of the 32-word pledge that children and teachers recite together before launching into the day’s school work.

No longer does Phillips robotically turn to the flag, place a right hand over her heart and belt out the pledge. It’s more complicated now. The terrorist attacks on the United States made it so.

“I think about liberty and justice for all,” said Phillips, wearing a T-shirt decorated with a tiny American flag. “That’s very important.”

As months peeled off the 2001 and 2002 calendars, Phillips’ classmates Zach Losey and Emma Reaney also found more relevance in the ritual.

“I think about the ‘under God’ part,” Losey said.

Reaney finds herself pondering the significance of swearing an oath to the country and implications of binding herself to “one nation” Â for better or worse.

“It says we’re all together … in this,” Reaney said.

Lawrence public school students of all ages said in interviews they’ve been moved deeply by events of the past year. Some have worked to put the horror behind them, making certain life goes on as close to normal as possible. Others are concerned that instability in the world may derail long-held career dreams.

Courtney Ogden, 14, is a ninth-grader at South Junior High School. Last year, Ogden and other students there gave a collective hug to New York City residents stricken by terrorist attacks. Their annual all-school photograph took on special meaning when hundreds of folks gathered on the football field to create an “I Love New York” message. The students also raised money to help victims of the attacks.

Staying current, moving on

The students also experienced a solemn school assembly with Shirley and Robert Hemenway of rural Shawnee as guests of honor. The Hemenways’ son, Ronald, died at the Pentagon. He was in the U.S. Navy, and left behind a wife and two children.

Still, Ogden said, dwelling on the horror of such attacks serves no purpose. He said it’s important to keep informed about the latest turns on the terrorism front by reading newspapers and watching television, but it’s also useful to move on.

“I try not to let it get to me,” Ogden said. “I try not to think about it.”

But other students’ thoughts are repeatedly drawn to events of Sept. 11.

Becky Ettredge, a 15-year-old sophomore at Lawrence High School, said the disaster was an eye-opener in terms of international relations.

“It taught us a big lesson,” she said. “We need to be more careful, in my opinion, about how we treat other nations.”

U.S. government officials tout this country’s tradition of democracy and freedom, but those same officials stifle the ability of people in other countries to determine their future absent American intervention, Ettredge said.

“I look at America differently,” she said. “This taught me America is not as great as people have said.”

Ettredge said her new appreciation of anti-American sentiment abroad prompted reconsideration of her career goal to become a photographer and travel to exotic places shooting pictures.

“I’m not quite sure at this point what to do,” she said. “September 11 brought problems of the world to me.”

Observing the day

The best method for teachers and students to deal with these issues in public school classrooms is open to debate.

Some educators don’t plan to do much on the anniversary, but others intend to seize upon that date to study reasons for the attack and what impact events 12 months ago continue to have.

Ginny Turvey, a fourth-grade teacher at Broken Arrow, said her students were puzzled about what to do on the anniversary.

“We talked about it,” she said, “and we decided it might be best to just have a regular day.”

South ninth-grader Heath Downing agrees with Turvey. Reacting in a special way to the anniversary is precisely what terrorists want, he said.

“We should keep on going like nothing here changed,” Downing said.

Yet, high school faculty in Lawrence will launch head first into an examination of the deadliest assault on U.S. soil.

Paul Stuewe, who teaches American history at LHS, said U.S. military officers have been invited to speak with students on the anniversary. They’ll meet with individual classes and answer questions, Stuewe said.

“I have some pretty good students, and I think they’ll ask some good questions,” he said.

When those officers march into LHS, they’ll see students wearing their sentiments on their backs.

Patriotism aplenty

It’s impossible to walk around any school building in the Lawrence district without seeing people dressed in red, white and blue clothing or seeing patriotic decorations that have been added in the past year.

National unity, driven by the Sept. 11 attacks, remains visible.

Jaytoya Simms, a ninth-grader at South Junior High, said students now say the Pledge of Allegiance at school. South revitalized that tradition after the attacks.

“We started last year, and say it every morning. I like it,” Simms said.

The fourth-graders at Broken Arrow also feel the pulse of patriotism.

Reaney, who is a competitive swimmer, said it would be more of an honor now to represent the United States in the Olympics than it would have before Sept. 11.

She also likes to see all the flags that fly outside homes and businesses these days.

In fact, Reaney, Phillips, Losey and all the other students in their class made flags out of colored construction paper.

“They’re our own little flag,” Losey said. “It makes you feel good.”