Many Issues Make September 11 a Difficult Subject to Teach

Many Issues Make September 11 a Difficult Subject to Teach

Nagla Bedir did not talk about the September 11 terrorist attacks with her high school students last year. The New Jersey¹ teacher was holding classes online because of the pandemic, and it was a discussion she only wanted to have in person.

This year, on the 20th anniversary and with the Afghanistan war ending, September 11 – or 9/11 – is an issue she cannot avoid.

She has questions she plans to ask students in her international diplomacy² class: What do you know about 9/11, why it happened, and what happened afterwards? And how is it connected to Afghanistan?

"I think it's really important that teachers don't shy away from teaching about these things," Bedir said. She is a co-founder³ of the organization Teaching While Muslim.

Many educators worry about teaching anything that is considered political, she said. "I think it's really unfortunate," Bedir added, "because there is so much misinformation and disinformation in the world."

Today's students do not remember September 11, but they have heard about it all their lives.

Jennifer Grygiel is a professor at Syracuse University in New York. She researches social media and the internet. She said that if students are not given factual information that helps them understand what happened and why, students could start to believe conspiracies⁴ – theories that claim an event was a secret plan carried out by usually powerful people or groups.

"In the absence of information, people go online," Grygiel said.

Kathy Durham is a history teacher in the state of Nevada. She uses 9/11 to teach her high school students about primary sources. She shows her students documentary films and old news coverage⁵. She also requires them to talk to adults who remember that day.

Sometimes students claim the attacks were a government conspiracy⁶. Durham said she pushes them to examine the truthfulness⁷ of sources and evidence.

"It's really, really a delicate thing, because my job is to teach kids to think and not tell them what to think," Durham said.

Some schools teach about 9/11 around the anniversary or briefly⁸ discuss it in history classes. But the way the attacks are taught are often up to the teacher, even in states where 9/11 lessons are required.

Teaching 9/11 "has largely been memorializing the events versus⁹ really digging into the context of 9/11 and the ongoing¹⁰ sort of results of 9/11," said Jeremy Stoddard. He is a University of Wisconsin professor who has researched the subject.

In the years immediately after the attacks, 9/11 was a very emotional subject for students. But with students now distanced from it, it can be difficult keeping students interested, said Anthony Gardner. He is the founder of the September 11th Education Trust.

The organization recently released a plan to help teachers use 9/11-related lessons on the anniversary as well as throughout the year. Gardner, who lost his brother on 9/11, said it is important that students hear about people who died that day, related deaths that came later, and the lessons learned.

Corey Winchester is a high school history teacher in Illinois. He tries to teach about 9/11 not just as a single event, but "something that we're still interacting with."

For some teachers, telling personal stories helps students learn the wide effects of 9/11. Liz Prince is having her fifth graders in Mississippi record a discussion with someone they know about a September 11 experience.

Back in New Jersey, Bedir plans to teach what happened and then have students explore the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan before 2001. She will also share her own experience, when she was a student herself.

Bedir was 11 at the time and attending school. The World Trade Center's Twin Towers were visible from the school grounds.

Her parents feared for her safety as anti-Muslim opinions grew after the attacks. She said her parents stopped her from starting to wear a hijab. She ended up waiting 10 more years before she covered her hair.

Words in This Story

shy from — phrasal verb. to try to avoid (something) because of nervousness, fear, dislike, etc.

unfortunate — n. not fortunate; having bad luck

absence — n. a state or condition in which something expected, wanted, or looked for is not present or does not exist : a state or condition in which something is absent

primary sources — n. a document or story created at the time of an historic event

delicate — adj. easily broken or damaged

memorialize — v. to do or create something that causes people to remember (a person, thing, or event)

context — n. the words that are used with a certain word or phrase and that help to explain its meaning

interact — v. to talk or do things with other people

visible — adj. able to be seen

hijab — n. a head covering worn in public by some Muslim women

1 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

2 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 conspiracies   

n.阴谋，密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was still alive and hatching his conspiracies. 他还活着，策划着阴谋诡计。 来自辞典例句
• It appeared that they had engaged in fresh conspiracies from the very moment of their release. 看上去他们刚给释放，立刻开始新一轮的阴谋活动。 来自英汉文学

5 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

6 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

7 truthfulness   

n. 符合实际

参考例句：

• Among her many virtues are loyalty, courage, and truthfulness. 她有许多的美德，如忠诚、勇敢和诚实。
• I fired a hundred questions concerning the truthfulness of his statement. 我对他发言的真实性提出一连串质问。

8 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

9 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

10 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。