Teaching About 9/11 to the New Generation

Students in this year's high school freshman class were not yet born on Sept. 11, 2001. "To them, it's history, just like Pearl Harbor," said Chris Causey, a middle school educator in Robertson County, Tenn. Teachers feel challenged to teach 9/11 in a way that is relevant to all ages. In New Jersey, third-graders learn about the K9 rescue teams while 12th-graders discuss methods of prisoner interrogation. In Tennessee, students at Stratford High School conduct a mock rescue at the World Trade Center; others arrange their desks like airplane seats while Williamson County social studies teacher Kenneth Roeten asks students about their everyday morning routines and compares them with headlines just before the attacks. "We brainstorm our feelings and thoughts," said Cassie Knutson, a teacher in the deaf education program at Madison Middle School in Abilene, Texas. "We watch videos, talk about airplanes. This is meant to help them see it, to visualize that day and what it meant to so many people." "I personally cannot think of any other event in American history that has had more of an impact on how everyday Americans live their life," Roeten wrote in an email. "It has had a profound impact on my life; therefore, I believe it to be my duty as an educator to never stop teaching the shock, horror, sadness and utter disbelief of that day." But how? That's what school systems around the country wrestle with. "I don'...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: News Major Incidents Source Type: news