15: 9/11 Education

From the Stars And Stripes:

"As 15th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, teachers now ask: 'Where were your parents?'"

The first time social studies teacher Laura Webb taught a lesson on Sept. 11, she asked her students: "How do you feel?" "Where were you?" she asked. "What were you doing? Do you know anyone who joined the military because of this?" That was in 2002, on the first anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. This week, for the first time, she will teach the event to a classroom of Career Magnet Academy students who weren't alive when the attack happened. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. "Now, my kids were all born in 2002," Webb said. "They've seen it, but briefly. I can't say, 'Where were you?' because they weren't thought of yet. "I have to elaborate on (how) this is an actual, horrific event, because they tend to be a little hardened from things they see." Instead of asking where students were at the time, she asks where their parents were. She shows them video from ground zero and connects the attack to other events in history, such as the Dec. 7, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor. Unlike those 20th-century events, where students might examine yellowed newspaper clippings or early war photography, the terrorist attacks and the aftermath were captured on live television as they happened. Anyone can watch YouTube videos of the second plane striking the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Students can see video of the first, and then the second, tower collapse. Images shot on the ground show people running from the wall of debris after the collapse. "There was this one video I had seen — it wasn't too long ago, I was still a teenager or a pre-teen — and it was from the ground," said Jamari Smith, 15, a sophomore at Career Magnet, which is based at Pellissippi State Community College's Strawberry Plains campus. "It was a video, a man holding (the camera) and he started running and you could see the debris and the smoke and stuff just going everywhere and people going into the smoke to help others. That still sticks with me." Classmate Jake Willson, 14, also a sophomore, said he was 10 or 11 years old the first time he watched the video in class at Carter Elementary School. "Some of the footage I saw was planes flying into the Twin Towers, then we listened to phone calls that were made by the people in the plane, by people on the ground," Jake said. "We listened to their experience on the plane and on the ground of (how) they're going to lose their family members. It's just really sad and uncomfortable at the time, at my young age." In the early grades, the lesson plans on Sept. 11 center around broad themes of heroism and helping people, said Judy Newgent, K-12 social studies specialist, who coordinates curriculum for the district. "In kindergarten, I would not go into (details), but we talk about firefighters and police officers and heroes, and our teachers might have our students ... by second grade ... write a thank-you card and deliver to local police and firefighters," Newgent said. By fourth grade, teachers often talk about volunteering and character traits. In high school, teaching about Sept. 11 and the aftermath, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, are part of required state teaching standards. Mike Wyatt, who teaches U.S. history to eighth-grade students at Carter Middle School, said most of his students know little about the details of the attack before reaching his classroom. "They may have been taught about it through the years, but not in the perspective of American history," Wyatt said. "They know very little about it. When they see the real-time video of the planes going into the building and the animation they have on the internet, they sit there going, 'Oh my gosh.' " Last year, Carter Middle took a group of about 100 students to visit the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum in New York City for the first time. Students spent more than two hours in the museum, poring over every detail. Not only are his students now born after 2001, but the memories of Sept. 11 are fading even from teachers. Wyatt notes one of his colleagues, a second-year teacher at Carter, was in fourth grade when the attack took place.

^  I can't  believe it's been 15 years. Not only does that make me feel old, but so does the fact that so many young people aren't told about and don't understand what really happened on 9-11 or how it still affects the country and the world today. Of course I remember exactly where I was when I saw it happen along with how it felt and the changes that occurred afterwards. Schools need to spend more time on teaching about the attacks since it is both a  part of our history as well as our current events (Muslim extremist terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan.) ^

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/as-15th-anniversary-of-9-11-approaches-teachers-now-ask-where-were-your-parents-1.427214