'What happened at the Pentagon?' If we're not careful, 9/11 attacks will fade from memory.

“The Pentagon is broken,” he said. “I saw the hole from my daddy’s car.”

The child was a preschooler in one of my library classes. He approached me after story time. I recall his little hands cupping my ear as if he were sharing a secret.

Like everyone in the Washington, D.C., area, this young child had a story to tell after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. One of my friends in Arlington, Virginia, was surprised by a vase falling from a bookshelf when the impact of the Pentagon crash jolted nearby houses. Others were frightened by the smoke and the sirens. Another family I knew was spared tragedy because the mother arrived late to work at the Pentagon that particular Tuesday morning. Many people were panicked by the lack of cell service as they tried to get through to loved ones and co-workers.

The Pentagon was broken. A gaping hole could be seen from the road. But it was repaired within a year. And in 2008, a beautiful memorial was erected on the grounds of the complex. The Sunday my husband and I visited, we got lost in one of the massive parking lots. A helpful security guard directed us.

When we finally arrived, we spent a thoughtful hour in silence walking among 184 cantilevered benches made of stainless steel with inlaid granite. On each bench, a name is inscribed. The ages of victims range from a 3-year-old aboard American Airlines Flight 77 with her family, to a 71-year-old Navy veteran also on the hijacked flight.

In addition to the beauty of the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, I must note that my husband and I were practically alone – so different from other memorials in the area generally packed with tourists. At the time, I appreciated the quiet, but in retrospect I wonder whether the absence of visitors that day reflects a larger truth about the collective memory of Sept. 11.

'Many people are surprised to hear that the Pentagon was ever a target'

The Pentagon sits across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Virginia. In a recent conversation with a group of Northern Virginia friends, I asked whether they had visited the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. They responded that they didn’t even know a memorial existed there.

News coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks focused primarily on the carnage in New York City. Anniversary coverage does, too. Who doesn’t immediately recognize an image of the Twin Towers collapsing? Could the same be said for an uncaptioned picture of the damage done to the Pentagon?

Do Americans even remember that a jetliner also crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001?

A synopsis on the Arlington Public Library website for "9/11 Inside the Pentagon," a PBS documentary about the attack, notes that “many people are surprised to hear that the Pentagon was ever a target, let alone the loss of life that occurred there.”

Are kids learning enough about civics? If we want to make history, we must understand it first.

'What happened at the Pentagon?'

In 2008, I was a librarian at a public elementary school in Northern Virginia. After viewing a snippet of the televised dedication ceremony at the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, a group of my students expressed sincere surprise. “What happened at the Pentagon?” they asked me.

If students in Virginia don’t know, what about students in Idaho or New Mexico?

We're still living with 9/11. Just like we're learning to live with COVID-19.

I will acknowledge that the Washington area did not experience the same death toll as New York City, where 2,753 lost their lives that Sept. 11. The Pentagon building still exists, unlike the demolished Twin Towers. But 9/11 was not just an attack on New York.

As the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Pentagon is a symbol of American security. That symbol was shattered in 2001.

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Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This year and in subsequent anniversaries, we should be cognizant of the 184 lives lost in Virginia and the 40 who died when terrorists crashed another jet in Pennsylvania. We should ask that this history be a part of the curriculum in all American schools.

Now, only a fraction of the 50 states require students to be educated on the events of Sept. 11, 2001. When a subject is not required, it is not given precious instructional time, particularly in schools that struggle with standardized test scores.

If we are not careful to teach the next generation, the 9/11 terrorist attacks will fade into a brief news story given coverage only on milestone anniversaries. Those who died 22 years ago deserve to be more than a footnote in American history.

Jacqueline Jules is a poet and author of more than 50 titles. In 2001, she was living in Arlington, Virginia, and working as a librarian. Her collection of narrative poems, "Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember," recalls the Northern Virginia experience of 9/11. Visit her online at www.jacquelinejules.com

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What happened on 9/11? Honor lives lost by teaching kids our history