I should remember it, especially since Nov 22 is my sister's birthday, but I have zero recollection. (Like Yeoman Randi, I was 5 and kindergarten age.)
Pretty much, why I don't is because I had morning, not afternoon kindergarten, so I wasn't in school when the announcement came.
Mom was downtown shopping for my sister's birthday (remember when folks went downtown to shop, not to a mall?) and came home without a gift and upset, she tells me (which probably upset my sister, lol!)
Even though I have no recollection of that day, I do remember watching coverage of the funeral. I remember the solemn procession with the flag-draped coffin and Jon-Jon saluting. We all watched it on the ancient B&W TV in our living room.
The funeral of JFK is my first "non-family" memory.
Did kids get sent home from school on 9/11.
With parents working, hell no. However, schools permitted students to leave here. Of course, they had to prove that they own your kids - must call home, etc., but I'm pretty sure anyone who wanted to split did so with or without permission. My daughter had our car that day, which worked out great. I called both schools (had 3 kids in school at the time) to tell 'em to spring the kids, and the eldest drove them all home.
At that time, the attacks were still in progress and I wanted my kids home. No school would have stopped me.
My memories of Robert Kennedy and MLK's assassinations are much more vivid. I was watching TV when the news came on about MLK's and I ran to tell my Mom that "some king has died." Unlike me, who thought it was a KING, she knew who he was and was upset over the news.
What are you talking about? Are you from an alternate reality? 
9/11 was on a Tuesday. The entire world knows it. Even my dog knows it. JFK was shot on a Friday, notice how many people mentioned their teachers telling them the news in class, like my Mom was when she was ten.
