On September 12, 2014, students are being asked to simultaneously sing the National Anthem. That request is being made by the 9/12 Generation Project, the educational division of the New York Says Thank You Foundation. Singing of the National Anthem begins at 1:00pm EST and 10:00 PST.
The 9/12 Generation Project teaches students about compassion, kindness, diversity, citizenship, and volunteerism by focusing on “9/12” – the day after the terror attacks. The project has helped to transform the worst day in modern American history by focusing on “9/12” – the day the world came together and when thousands of volunteers came to New York to help the city heal after the terror attacks.
“Getting students involved in learning the words and meaning of our nation’s anthem, as well as teaching them to use their voices on the activist front, is key,” says M. Shannon Hernandez, professor and author. “When students come together to celebrate kindness, compassion, and citizenship, everyone wins.”
Mia Toschi, National Director of the 9/12 Generation Project, adds: “We’re hoping that on 9/12, we will see and hear the world come together just as we did on September 12, 2001. There has been a lot of ‘bad news’ lately so perhaps this event can bring our nation together – even for a brief time.”
Students, parents and teachers can learn more about the National Anthem and the Flag by visiting The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem created by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American history by visiting, www.theapef.org. Toschi adds there are 500,000 students in the 9/12 Generation Project family of schools and believes that with the cooperation of key partners, there will be millions of students singing this September 12.
“Whenever I hear the National Anthem I am reminded not only of our nation’s struggle for independence, but also the patriotism invoked by the Anthem’s words, ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave. It fills me with great pride to know that on 9/12, students across this great country will simultaneously sing our National Anthem,” says Anne M. Byrne, President of the National School Boards Association.
The Star-Spangled Banner is a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key as he watched British ships bombard Fort McHenry, Maryland, during the War of 1812. The song contains four verses and became the National Anthem by an act of Congress in 1931. Although it has four stanzas, the most commonly sung stanza is the first one.
