Teaching tragedy: How the 9/11 attacks are taught in schools

Sep. 11—Over two decades since the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil on Sept. 11, 2001, many born that day or after have no recollection of what transpired that day or its significance.

People of a certain age remember what happened in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville. Those younger than 20, particularly those in grade school now, haven't lived through it.

A 2017 study showed that only 14 states require 9/11 instruction and Pennsylvania is not among them. They are: Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and New York.

Jeremy Winn, now the principal at Danville High, was in his first year of teaching at Mount Carmel Area High School on Sept. 11, 2001.

"You always hear your parents — there are certain times in history you remember where you were. That was one of them," he said.

Winn said the school will have a moment of silence and an announcement over the intercom at the time the event occurred in the morning. Winn said social studies teachers discuss the attacks in their classrooms and plan to cover the topic on Monday.

"For the 20th anniversary, we did a lot more activities, painted windows, we did Post-It notes that made a flag," said Winn. "We certainly did a lot more on that anniversary."

Some teachers, Winn said, do individual discussions. He said social studies classes will integrate how 9/11 affected society.

"Each teacher does their own connection from what they remember of the day," added Winn.

The 2017 study by the University of Wisconsin surveyed 1,047 secondary school teachers. Researchers Jeremy Stoddard and Dianna Hess, both professors at Wisconsin, have been studying "how the events of 9/11 and the global war on terror are integrated into secondary level U.S. classrooms and curricula," according to a report published in the independent news organization The Conversation to commemorate the 20th-anniversary last year.

"What we have found is a relatively consistent narrative that focuses on 9/11 as an unprecedented and shocking attack, the heroism of the firefighters and other first responders and a global community that stood behind the U.S. in its pursuit of terrorists," they wrote. This simple approach, however, could gloss over key components.

"If the goal of teaching history is to develop citizens who use knowledge of the past to understand the present and inform future decisions, educators need to help students learn from 9/11 and the war on terror, and not just about them," Hess and Stoddard wrote. "This means going beyond the facts of the day and the collective memory aspects to also engage in inquiry into why they happened and how the U.S. and other nations reacted.

Catching upDyllon Shay, a tenth-grader at Mifflinburg High School, said 9/11's significance has more meaning to others but admitted he did not fully know or understand that day until he was a young teen.

Shay said throughout his school career to this point, each year different teachers will teach about different aspects relating to the attacks.

"I feel like they didn't go as far into it as they do now. When I was younger I barely knew about it (9/11)," said Shay, 15. "I feel like they just kept adding to it year after year."

On Friday, Shay said his class filled out a Google document about how 9/11 affected American citizens, and how it made them feel about the federal government.

"Then we watched a video about the attacks and government officials were talking about how to get things taken care of then it showed all the people that died and took their lives," Shay said.

Shay said students had to put answers down for different questions, such as how many people were killed during 9/11, emotional ramifications from that day, ways 9/11 altered American patriotism, or if terrorism is still an issue Americans care about

"I think that it's important to learn about it because it was a big part of history," Shay added.

Shay said it is possible some Americans developed a fear or hate against those of the Muslim religion or foreign nationals.

"Not all of them are bad people and it affected them and their countries as much as ours," Shay said.

David Swanson, 23, graduated from Lewisburg High School in 2018. Not old enough to remember the day, he said, and he felt like the school system made little effort to describe its significance to students.

"It was not touched on in school," said Swanson.

Swanson said throughout his school career, he remembered only two isolated incidents 9/11 was mentioned in class, once in social studies.

"We were learning about 9/11 only because our teacher got off topic on 9/11 because somebody was asking a question," Swanson said.

He said the teacher told the story what it was like at the high school that day.

"It was a narrative. That's how it was taught. It was a narrative of Lewisburg's experiences. We never talked bout the rationale behind it or America's reaction to it in general," Swanson said. "We only really talked about the narrative of Lewisburg's indirect involvement with it."

Swanson referenced a former classmate with a birthday on 9/11 who had little knowledge of the day's significance. Swanson said 9/11 was never part of lesson planning when he was in school.

"Really it was just not talked about. I couldn't tell you if that was by choice or if people didn't think we needed to," he said.

It was not until Swanson reached college in Virginia that he understood Islamaphobic attitudes developed after 9/11. Swanson said he had seen discrimination in action towards those of the Islam faith.

According to estimates, there are approximately 1.8 billion followers of the Islamic faith, according to the Pew Research Center.

Important to learnJane Swift, the Republican governor of Massachusetts on Sept. 11, 2001, told The Daily Item when teaching history and adding curriculum it is important to have distance from actual events.

Swift has been an educational executive since leaving office in 2003.

"I'm not sure what the right amount of time is to make an event a historical event but we are close to that moment," Swift said.

It is best for historians, Swift said, to make the determination on time. She warned about the dangers of politicization of school curriculum decisions in real-time by political leaders. She used Florida as an example with its ban on Critical Race Theory.

"In general I think it is really important that students learn civics and the core underlying tenets of our democracy," said Swift, education advisor to the late Sen. John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign.

"Events like 9/11 can enliven those lessons," added Swift.

Swift believes 9/11 should be taught within the same historical and academic context as all other events that precipitated armed conflicts. She said conspiracy theories on events still exist.

"Pearl Harbor is probably the best similar event as there also continue to be conspiracy theories," Swift said.

According to William Hudon, a professor emeritus of history who retired from Bloomsburg University in June, students at all levels are not receiving the full story about 9/11.

"What it boils down to is they get half the story. They get the official line of the government. Now 20 years down the road they are 'shocked' — thats the word they use," said Hudon.

Hudon said he would ask students what they learned about 9/11 in high school and cover weeks of documentary analysis of events surrounding that day.

He said most students seem unaware, for instance, about organized torture methods at Guantanamo Bay.

"These are all brand new topics to them even though it has been investigated by U.S. Senate committees," Hudon said. "There's lots of stuff out there but it doesn't seem to be making its way into the curriculum yet."

Hudon said he is shocked what students miss out on in high school and there are gaps in educational curriculum.

Hudon has worked with WVIA on television series about 9/11 to gain different perspectives, including from Guantanamo detainees.

"There's lots of stuff out there I just don't think people listen to it," Hudon added.

He said the 9/11 situation is very complicated. Hudon said there are disagreements that call into question the idea America is not the greatest nation on earth.

"People have a bad reaction about other parts of the story," he said.

New York is the only northern state requiring 9/11 education as part of the public school education curriculum.

"I think it is very important it be taught because the lesson is clear," former Gov. George E. Pataki told The Daily Item. "We take our freedoms for advantage. There are people in this world who hate us, who hate our freedoms and are prepared to attack us for it."

Pataki said if we do not remember our vulnerabilities we increase the likelihood we will be attacked again.

"I find it sad most states don't seem to care (about 9/11 education)," Pataki said.

Current memorials to 9/11 were constructed while Pataki was governor but 9/11 education curriculum in New York state happened after he left office.

"What's missing is the fact the towers first blew up in 1993," said Pataki, who said political correctness about Islamic terrorists is being lost in conversation.

"You have to draw that distinction between faith and fanatics who don't share that faith and many are reluctant or afraid to do that because they're afraid students can't grasp the distinction," Pataki said.