NEW YORK CITY -- Teaching 9/11: “To them, it’s history, just like Pearl Harbor,” said Chris Causey, a middle school educator in Robertson County, Tennessee. So, as the memories fade, teachers feel challenged to teach 9/11 in some way that is relevant to all ages in the United States.
Deaf school children in Texas use sign language to paint a powerful portrait of what happened on Sept. 11.
In some schools in New Jersey, third graders learn about the K9 rescue teams while 12th graders discuss methods of prisoner interrogation. In Tennessee, older students at Stratford High School conduct a mock rescue at the World Trade Center; others arrange their desks like the seats of an airplane while Williamson County social studies teacher Kenneth Roeten asks students about their everyday morning routines and compares them to headlines just before the attacks.
“I personally cannot think of any other event in American history that has had more of an impact on how everyday Americans live their life,” Roeten wrote in an email. “It has had a profound impact on my life; therefore, I believe it to be my duty as an educator to never stop teaching the shock, horror, sadness and utter disbelief of that day.”
But how? That's what school systems around the country are wrestling with now.
“I don’t think there’s a school system that has said ‘We’re going to focus on this,'” said Colleen Tambuscio, a teacher at New Milford High School in New Jersey who helped write a 9/11 curriculum through the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education in collaboration with the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in Manhattan. “I think what has happened in New Jersey - we’ve had moments of silence; we’ve had commemorative acts that were important. But now we should be getting into the educational piece, where we’re doing more with the education. That’s the trajectory.”
The lessons from the curriculum Tambuscio helped write include political and religious discussions; the history and present state of Islamic extremists; the global impact of the day economically; the ensuing wars; the backlash against Muslims; the change in day-to-day security and privacy implications; the huge personal tragedy; as well as stories of the first responders, extraordinary acts by ordinary citizens and the mission of service many felt afterward... Read The Full Story.
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