Remembering 9/11 in Our Classrooms

Online Reflection #2

Fearful and Frantic, my senior year in high school, I drove to school. Already aware that one plane crashed into the World Trade Center; I was confused and scared. Once at school, my teachers were visibly upset, some even crying. What was happening? I still didn’t know. Every TV in the building was tuned in to the news with live coverage in New York City. Sympathetically, deliberately, we watched black smoke billow from a tall gray structure so well known to our nation. Out of nowhere, another plane appears to circle around then plows into the East World Trade Center building. My small high school was stunned. We sat in silence as our nation was crippled.

I, along with many others, remember September 11, 2001, vividly. I still tear up when I see the fire departments doing their salutes and giving their moment of silence every September 11^th. It’s been 17 years, but it remains so fresh in my mind and still so relevant to today. This is one of the many reasons I believe we should still be teaching about 9/11.

Most students today were not alive during the attack, but they are still affected by the attacks. A few ways it is still relevant today are airport security, effects on health for the first responders, our nation at war, immigration, etc. This is the perfect opportunity to teach our students that our history affects our present and our future – to teach them that stereotyping is faulty logic and to address fears seen throughout our nation about other cultures – to teach them about patriotism. Think about how it could be taught as part of a bigger unit focusing on, fear, sadness, courage, or even grief. By not teaching about 9/11 so many opportunities are missed. Additionally, we vowed, collectively, as a nation to never forget.

In my search for information about rather or not 9/11 is taught in schools, I asked several friends in my program that agreed they were not seeing it in schools. I looked online and found that while many schools choose to teach it, many also do not. Some are left up to the individual teachers rather they want to teach it or not and some are not sure how to incorporate that into their curriculum. So, I began to think, how do we incorporate that into our curriculum, especially with IUG’s. That’s where the themed unit ideas came in. For example, I know that unit 2 for seventh graders is courage and for eighth grade it is fear. I believe there are definitely ways to work with that.

Being a member of the NEA, I thought, let me check their site for optional materials. Jackpot! They share lesson plans, background materials, approaches to teaching, and more. Furthermore, I found a couple of articles that solidify my argument that 9/11 should be taught in our schools. The National Public Radio (NPR), explains that only about 20 states currently teach it, in the article titles Teaching Sept. 11 to Students Who Were Born After The Attacks, and offers a book study idea using the book, Towers Falling, by Jewel Parker Rhodes. The second I found is a blog that I thought was an interesting read on The Learning Network by Holly Epstein Ojalvo titled, Teaching 9/11 Why? How? Beware though, if you’re anything like me, the video at the top of the article features a family, The Bailey’s, that lost their son in the attack and it is quite possible you will cry. I know I did!