Why Schools Matter

As we mark the fifth anniversay of that fateful day, this story on why schools matter and what matters in school.

Washington School Still Feels Pain of 9/11

As President Bush prepares to mark the fifth anniversary with high-profile remembrances at the three crash sites, the elementary school will mark the day with a low-key ceremony. And the families of the school’s four victims will cling to the bonds between them.

“Leckie is home,” Ms. Brown, who now lives in Florida, said in a telephone interview. “No matter where we go, we will always come back. We were all happy there. Every time I am there, I feel like my son is a legend.”

The families may have scattered, but the school and its garden remain a center of gravity, a place to steal away to and remember the last times their families were whole.