[Peace-discuss] Chicago Tribune: Schools grapple with 9/11 lesson plans

[David Green]

Schools grapple with Sept. 11 lesson plans
Programs to help mark anniversary
  
By Judith Graham
Tribune national correspondent
Published August 30, 2002

DENVER -- American studies teacher Nicolle Robinson
struck a nerve this week when she asked her Granite
High School students in Salt Lake City to write an
essay on the first day of school about how Sept. 11
affected them.

"Usually, this time of year, students don't have much
to say. But they wrote a lot--pages and pages of
thoughts and feelings--from `we still want revenge,'
to `we need to remember but move on,' to `I'm afraid
there's going to be another attack and we won't know
where or when or be able to prevent it,'" Robinson
said. "This is still very much on their minds, and I
think we're going to be talking about it in one way or
another all year."

As students return to classrooms across the country,
educators are grappling with a delicate, difficult
and, in some cases, contentious issue: how to mark the
anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which
comes only days after school begins. Many schools will
hold commemorative events; many will teach lessons
related to Sept. 11 in their classrooms.

Generally, educators are trying to strike a balance
between using the anniversary as an opportunity to
draw students into discussions of history and current
events and acknowledging it as an emotionally charged
event that may dredge up complicated feelings and call
for special support.

At New Trier High School in north suburban Winnetka,
nearly 600 teachers and staff met Tuesday to talk
about how to commemorate Sept. 11 and help students
think through "how this affected them as people, us as
a community, and us as a nation," said Betty
Brockelman, assistant superintendent of curriculum and
instruction.

Process sparks debates

Schools across the Chicago area and the nation are
undergoing a similar process. And already,
ideologically flavored controversies have flared.

One of the most heated is in the foothills of the
Rocky Mountains, where Colorado College asked
Palestinian leader HananAshrawi to be a keynote
speaker for a 2 1/2-day college symposium on global
challenges scheduled to begin Sept. 12. Ashrawi is a
Palestinian legislator and frequent adviser to Yasser
Arafat.

The invitation stunned Jewish leaders in Colorado,
many of whom consider Ashrawi an apologist for
terrorism.

Lief Carter, professor of American institutions at the
college, said the school considers Ashrawi, who
resigned from the Palestinian Authority several years
ago, a moderate. He said the day after Ashrawi's Sept.
12 address, an Israeli professor will give a keynote
address to provide a counterpoint.

Colorado College plans memorial events to mark the
terrorist attacks Sept. 11 that will be separate from
the symposium, Carter said.

Still, Jewish leaders are outraged.

"We think giving someone who has served as an
apologist for terrorism a highly visible platform like
this so close to the anniversary of the worst
terrorist attacks in America history is an affront to
the memory of those who died on Sept. 11 and shows a
gross lack of sensitivity to what Sept. 11 means to
Americans," said Rabbi Bruce Dollin, president of the
Rocky Mountain Rabbinical Council.

"Let's hear from her, but not at this time and not in
this place," he added.

Visiting Colorado last weekend, former New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani said of Ashrawi's invitation to the
symposium: "I wouldn't have invited her. Cancel it."

In Washington, the National Education Association has
come under attack from conservatives for "Remember
Sept. 11," an extensive curriculum and resource guide
for schools unveiled last week. Conservatives claim
the curriculum blames America for past mistakes and
conveys unpatriotic sentiments, a charge the teachers
group vehemently denies.

"They find it objectionable that we talk about issues
such as diversity and the need for tolerance in light
of Sept. 11. We believe American schools have a moral
obligation to deal with these issues and our responses
to the attacks," said Gerald Newberry, executive
director of the association's Health Information
Network, which prepared the materials.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also
provoked an outcry from Christian conservatives by
asking 3,000 incoming freshmen to read a book on the
Koran and discuss it in small groups on Aug. 19, the
day before classes began.

The Family Policy Network, which sued but failed to
stop the discussions, claims the school is fostering a
biased view of Islam by assigning early religious
texts only and leaving out readings on later, more
violent texts, said its president, Joe Glover.

Chancellor James Moeser said the university wanted to
stimulate students to begin learning about an
important world religion at the crux of events
surrounding Sept. 11.

If anything, these controversies underscore just how
loaded the subject of the terrorist attacks
remains--intellectually and emotionally--a year after
educators found themselves watching the 110-story twin
towers at the World Trade Center topple on television,
and wondering how to explain what was happening to
their dazed students.

Still searching for answers

"A year has passed, and none of us have solid answers
to questions like why did these attacks happen? And
what should we be doing to ensure this never happens
again?" said Jonathan Zimmerman, director of the
history of education program at New York University.

"That's an uncomfortable position to be in, but it's
also a tremendous opportunity to get kids thinking
about difficult subjects," he said.

Since Sept. 11, educators have been in uncharted
ground in dealing with the attacks. Colleges rushed to
introduce courses focusing on terrorism, Islam, Middle
East conflicts and security issues--a trend that
continues this fall. High schools and junior high
schools found students newly curious about current
events. Elementary teachers had to figure out how best
to address the needs and reactions of young children.

Though some publishers have put out supplements, there
are still no textbooks for children or young adults
that put the tragedy in the context of broader
religious, historical and cultural trends.

To help fill that gap, various groups have pulled
together curricula and resource materials that K-12
teachers can use as they draft classroom activities to
mark Sept. 11.

Among them is an extensive Web site called 9/11 as
History, a joint effort of 22 non-profit organizations
and educators spearheaded by the Families and Work
Institute of New York and funded by Bank One
Foundation of Chicago. The site, which focuses on
lessons to be learned from the tragedy, includes 16
lesson plans and has received nearly 9,000 hits after
about two weeks online.

Also new is a five-day high school curriculum called
"Responding to Terrorism" developed at Brown
University, which has been purchased by 1,300 high
school teachers and will probably be used in their
classrooms this fall. The unit explores the history of
terrorism and the events of Sept. 11, and asks
students to debate four policy options.

Julie Hagler, who teaches at Normal Community High
School in Normal, Ill., plans to use the Brown
materials leading up to Sept. 11.

"A lot of students one year later still have a lot of
confusion about why Sept. 11 happened and what U.S.
policies in the Middle East are and should be," Hagler
said. "I think it's going to mean a lot to them to
talk about terrorism policies on that day."


Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune 


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