California Public Schools Prepare New Curriculum on 9/11 Attacks

Most high school seniors were just two years old when airliners brought down the twin towers in New York City and crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001. With no personal memory of 9/11, California schools are dealing with the issue of teaching students about the events of that day and the impact it’s had on this nation. Many schools simply observe a moment of silence in the classroom on Sept. 11 and a few teachers have a class discussion about the tragic event.

After several years of research, the California State Board of Education approved a new History–Social Science Framework for public schools that includes a framework for teaching about 9/11 to 10th graders. The terrorist attack is rolled into a section titled, “The New Geophysics.”

Specifically it states:

“Over the past twenty years, the world has oscillated between dreams of perpetual peace and the despair of enduring conflict. A new era began on November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall tumbled, marking the Cold War’s peaceful end—a denouement to a forty-year conflict that few had dared to entertain. That era seemed to end on September 11, 2001, when nineteen Islamic extremists sponsored by Al Qaeda in an effort to make a political statement, crashed civilian airliners into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building in Washington D.C., murdering almost 3,000 civilians. Since 9/11, the hopes for a more peaceful world that the end of the Cold War spawned have been displaced by a resurgence of international conflict, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia. While the major powers have avoided war with each other, the tenor of international relations became more hostile after 9/11, as long-standing international friendships (i.e., between the United States and Europe) deteriorated and old animosities rekindled themselves (i.e., Russia and the West).

“When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, what kind of world did it bequeath? Why did the vision of a “New World Order” that U.S. President George H.W. Bush articulated in 1990—a vision of a world more stable, pacific, and predictable than the world of the past—fail to come to pass? Did 9/11 change everything? Or was the world in the 1990s less stable than it might have appeared at the time?”

>> TAKE POLL HERE

The California Teachers Association notes that the events of 9/11 “killed approximately 3,000 civilians, sparked wars in the Middle East, changed civil rights in America, and impacted foreign policy, travel and a presidential election.” Due to its far-ranging impact, in past years, many teachers felt they couldn’t ignore the date. Monica Stewart’s 6th graders at Los Amigos Elementary School heard a synopsis of what happened without any gory details. She also taught them about the heroism of ordinary Americans. Her students sympathized with the victims and their survivors.

Student Fernando Carbajal said, “I feel sad for people who risked their lives to help others. They wanted to live.”

While student Isabel Dorn added, “Imagine your mom or dad walking in there. People risked their lives and died. I would have wanted to help, too.”

Teacher Stewart summed up for her students, “We must be thankful and cherish our families every single day.”

The guidelines adopted by the State Board of Education will take years to implement as textbooks are rewritten and school districts allocate funds for the new books. Until then, it will be up to individual districts, schools and teachers to keep the history of 9/11 vibrant for California students whose lives today are directly impacted by those events.

--Image via Shutterstock