How is 9/11 Being Taught in Pennsylvania Schools?

Over the past few weeks, students across Pennsylvania have returned to classes to begin the new school year. Many students who are starting their first day of school as freshmen and sophomores were born about 15 years ago. They entered the world just as it was changed forever by the events of September 11, 2001.

The infants of 9/11 are now preparing to learn about 9/11, but teachers around the state and country are faced with the herculean task of how to appropriately convey the scope and the meaning of the day to school aged children.

The Keystone State has an intimate connection with September 11. The attacks hit close to home for local residents: the Pennsylvania border is due just some 70 miles east of the World Trade Center. Pennsylvanians died in the Twin Towers. Many were directly affected or knew someone who was affected by the attacks. And United Flight 93, another hijacked jet which authorities speculate could have been meant to target the White House, was brought down by passengers in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania.

At the state level, the Pennsylvania Department of Education has no specific content requirements for September 11 curriculum. There is nothing mandated in the state’s core curriculum. All decisions on how 9/11 education is implemented is up to the discretion of local districts.

Broadly, most districts handle 9/11 education similarly. Elementary students are introduced to the essentials of the day, but nothing too complex is implemented until junior high school. High school juniors and seniors in some districts have terrorism-oriented electives available, and 9/11 is taught as part of the terrorism unit in introductory history classes. Tangential topics such as the Patriot Act, the role of government, and sociology are also addressed.

Elementary School

In Abington School District in Montgomery County, much of the district’s 9/11 education plan takes place on the day on which the anniversary is commemorated. Students begin hearing about September 11 as early as kindergarten. All students in K-6 start September 11 with a morning announcement noting the significance of the day. In the Phoenixville Area of School District, there is a moment of silence. For students up through third grade in most districts, that is the extent of their formal education on 9/11.

As children mature and gain the ability to more completely appreciate the significance of major historical events, however, the programming matures with them. Starting in fourth grade, Abington students learn from lessons inspired by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which are then implemented by teachers. Students are exposed to the basics: what happened on 9/11? Why is it important to commemorate the anniversary of the day? How do we tell the story of 9/11?

While Abington lays out a very specific framework for day-of activities on 9/11, other local districts, like Spring-Ford, have more general edicts: highlight patriotism, how communities came together after 9/11, and the importance of community heroes.

Elementary schools in particular go out of their way to ensure that younger students are not psychologically disturbed by the content of what they are learning.

“Our teachers are mindful of making the 9/11 discussion age appropriate,” said Toni Butz, the Director of Curriculum at North Penn School District in Lansdale.

“Schools will continue to accentuate to our students that their school is a trusted and safe learning community,” said Erin Crew, a spokesperson at Spring-Ford. “All children are special and should feel secure physically and emotionally when in school. School counselors are happy to work with children who are particularly affected by the media coverage of 9/11.”

With the foundation laid, fifth graders begin to move into a more analytical historical study. The title of their Patriot Day lesson is “Teaching Tolerance and Diversity.” The lesson focuses specifically on how intolerance inspired the attacks of 9/11, and how in the wake of the attacks, survivors are faced with two essential choices:

“In the universal response to (the attacks), we have two models: the first, a world driven by intolerance to destroy all difference; the second, a world where difference is embraced as the core of a shared humanity. These two poles can mark the boundaries of classroom discussions of the meanings – and significance – of tolerance.”

As part of the lesson, students discuss the importance of “differences” and why it’s so crucial to learn about and accept different people and different cultures. Elementary school teachers use flipbooks and a library book with a related theme to help teach the class.

Middle School

By the time students enter seventh grade, 9/11 may not be an established part of the yearly curriculum, but students have a strong enough grounding on the issue that they begin to delve into specifics.

At Abington, seventh graders in World Geography learn about the background of the events leading up to the day. Students watch a 12-minute video called “Boatlift” about the rescue of 500,000 people from the Manhattan coast in the wake of the attacks, which reinforces values of heroism and resilience. Spring-Ford executes a similar strategy. “Most teachers use an accompanying video that uses multiple first-hand accounts and media reports from 9/11 to explain the ‘what,’” Crew said.

Many districts in Pennsylvania progress through time periods in American history in stages and don’t actually reach the modern era until ninth or tenth grade. Abington is one of the exceptions: eighth grade American history delves into the history of the U.S. response to 9/11, the war on terror, the Patriot Act, and changes in national security. Ninth graders, meanwhile, study terrorism around the world as part of their World History class.

High School

Students that are presently in high school are among the first age-group which has no memory or no first-hand experience with September 11 itself. They’re among the first students whom high school teachers can no longer ask: where were you on September 11?

For students and teachers who struggled to come to terms with the tragedy in the years following the attacks, those types of questions were a surefire way to spark dialogue. The same way past generations remembered what they were doing when they found out John F. Kennedy was assassinated, or when the Challenger space shuttle exploded, most who lived through 9/11 remembered details with crystal clarity. Teaching the younger generation “changes the dynamic of the discussion,” Crew said.

In many of the districts which Patch spoke with, freshman and sophomore year are when history curriculum catches up the modern era. This when students start to consider more closely the “why” of 9/11.

“Our 10th grade curriculum focuses on 9/11 as a pivotal event in US History, and students study the impact it had on domestic and foreign policy in US History,’ said North Penn’s Butz.. “All 10th grade Social Studies teachers address the underlying concepts, politics, and the historical significance of 9/11 individually in their classes.”

Freshmen at Spring-Ford, meanwhile, learn about September 11 before they reach it chronologically. They learn about the Patriot Act in the context of the Alien and Sedition Acts, and President Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War. And tenth graders at Abington take a course called Civil Rights and Liberties, covering similar issues.

Past tenth grade, 9/11 is generally not a part of the yearly curriculum, although students do study 9/11 as part of social studies electives on specific issues. Abington, for example, has a class called America as a World Power, which studies the impact of terrorism on U.S. power and the role Osama bin Laden played in the position American currently occupies in the globe. Another elective, Global Issues in the 21st Century, teaches students about the birth of modern terrorism at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and continues through September 11 to the present.

Into the future

If there is a unifying theme in almost every grade in Pennsylvania schools, it is the importance of dialogue. Children first hear about the attacks when they enter their building for the first time on September 11 as a kindergartner. School announcements are made, or moments of silence are held, or teachers tell their individual classes about the significance of the day. As students grow, the nature of those conversations changes. But the bedrock of discussion remains constant. The lessons of 9/11 infiltrate myriad levels of society. And as long as there is a United States, they won't be forgotten.

Patch file photo.