For teachers who shy away from diving into teaching 9/11, avoiding controversy means depriving students of a critical educational opportunity, proponents of teaching 9/11 in classrooms argue. “Was the Iraq War or the Patriot Act the right response? The kids should be aware of the controversy, and should learn certain skills,” Levine said. “Those are very important civic skills and they’re raised by an issue like 9/11."
The inconsistency and sparseness of coverage has some teachers and those who study education deeply troubled, not only about students’ education but also about the implications for the future of American democracy. In 2011, 21 states directly mentioned 9/11 in their standards for social studies, according to research by Diana Hess, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Jeremy Stoddard, an associate professor in the School of Education at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.
“I’m worried about all of the dehumanizing narratives that can creep in and that can fill that vacuum in the place of a real, detailed, deep understanding of what happened on 9/11,” said Cheryl Duckworth, an assistant professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, who has written a book about how 9/11 is taught in U.S. classrooms.
Duckworth and other experts pointed to the fact that in order have a healthy democracy, students need to develop critical thinking skills and a strong understanding of their history so they can engage with their governments.
At HTMS this week, 6th grade social studies prepared lessons on 9/11 that included videos of the attacks, Web Quests for students to research, and assignments that included interviewing adults to gather their perspective of 9/11/2001.
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