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A Tragedy for All Americans: The 9/11 Terrorist Attack

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Insight on The Twin Towers Attack

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9/11 Attacks: Facts, Background and Impact

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September 11, 2001

New York City, New York, U.S.

The tragic events of September 11, 2001, commonly known as the 9/11 attacks, involved a series of coordinated hijackings and deliberate suicide attacks carried out by 19 militants affiliated with the extremist Islamic group al-Qaeda. These attacks, which remain the deadliest acts of terrorism on American soil, targeted several locations in the United States. The hijackers were successful in crashing two planes into the iconic North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing their eventual collapse. Another plane struck the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane, intended for a federal government building in Washington, D.C., was heroically thwarted by passengers who revolted, resulting in its crash in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These heinous acts had a profound impact on global security, reshaping the course of international relations and forever altering the lives of countless individuals affected by the tragedy.

The 9/11 attacks were a culmination of various historical factors and events that set the stage for this tragic event. The primary cause behind the attacks can be traced to the rise of Islamic extremism, particularly the extremist group al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. It emerged as a response to perceived injustices faced by Muslims, including the presence of American military forces in the Middle East and U.S. foreign policies in the region. The prerequisites leading to the attacks involved a combination of factors, such as ideological radicalization, recruitment efforts, and meticulous planning by the terrorists. These efforts aimed to exploit existing vulnerabilities within the aviation security system and target symbolic landmarks in the United States. Additionally, geopolitical conflicts, such as the Soviet-Afghan War and the Gulf War, played a role in shaping the ideological landscape and providing a breeding ground for extremist ideologies. The attacks were also facilitated by intelligence failures and a lack of coordination between various agencies responsible for counterterrorism efforts.

The effects of the 9/11 attacks were far-reaching and had a profound impact on various aspects of society. Primarily, the attacks resulted in the loss of thousands of innocent lives and caused immense physical destruction, particularly with the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the damage to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The attacks had significant socio-political consequences. They led to a heightened sense of fear and insecurity within the United States and around the world. The incident prompted the implementation of stricter security measures, including enhanced airport screenings and increased surveillance efforts, to prevent future terrorist acts. Moreover, the attacks influenced U.S. foreign policy, leading to military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The attacks also had economic repercussions. The destruction of the World Trade Center had a severe impact on global financial markets and the economy, leading to a decline in stock markets and increased job losses. Additionally, the attacks had a lasting psychological impact, causing trauma and grief among survivors, families of the victims, and communities affected by the events.

The 9/11 attacks have had a significant impact on media and literature, with numerous works exploring the events, their aftermath, and their implications. Various forms of media, including films, documentaries, books, and poems, have depicted the 9/11 attacks and their consequences. One notable example is the film "United 93" (2006), directed by Paul Greengrass. The movie reconstructs the events aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to regain control from the hijackers. The film offers a gripping and emotional portrayal of the heroic actions taken by the passengers in the face of tragedy. Another prominent work is "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" (2005), a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. The book follows a young boy named Oskar Schell, who lost his father in the World Trade Center collapse. Through Oskar's perspective, the novel explores themes of grief, trauma, and the search for meaning in the aftermath of the attacks.

The 9/11 attacks had a profound impact on public opinion, eliciting a range of responses and shaping perceptions worldwide. In the immediate aftermath, people expressed feelings of anger towards the perpetrators and a desire for justice to be served. The attacks also sparked debates and discussions on various topics, including national security, terrorism, and foreign policy. Public opinion regarding the government's response to the attacks and the subsequent military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq varied, with some supporting the actions taken and others expressing concerns about civil liberties and the potential escalation of conflicts. Furthermore, the 9/11 attacks prompted increased awareness and scrutiny of issues related to religious tolerance, Islamophobia, and the treatment of Muslim communities. Public discourse on these topics became more prominent, reflecting a heightened focus on understanding and combating prejudice.

1. The collapse of the Twin Towers following the 9/11 attacks remains a striking fact. The South Tower (WTC 2) collapsed only 56 minutes after being hit by United Airlines Flight 175, while the North Tower (WTC 1) collapsed 102 minutes after being struck by American Airlines Flight 11. These unprecedented structural failures shocked the world and demonstrated the devastating impact of the attacks. 2. The 9/11 attacks resulted in a tragic loss of life. In total, 2,977 people from over 90 countries lost their lives in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines Flight 93. Among the casualties were not only office workers and first responders but also individuals from diverse backgrounds, including tourists, airline passengers, and individuals attending business meetings. 3. Economic consequences: The attacks had a profound impact on the economy, not only in terms of immediate destruction but also long-term effects. It is estimated that the attacks caused a loss of $123 billion in economic output during the first two to four weeks. Additionally, sectors such as tourism, aviation, and finance experienced significant disruptions and faced substantial financial losses, leading to a ripple effect on employment and global markets.

The topic of the 9/11 attacks holds significant importance as it marks a pivotal moment in contemporary history that changed the global landscape in numerous ways. Understanding and exploring this event through an essay allows for a comprehensive examination of its profound impact on society, politics, security, and international relations. Firstly, the 9/11 attacks shattered the sense of security and invulnerability that many nations had previously enjoyed. It exposed vulnerabilities in security systems, leading to significant changes in counterterrorism measures and policies worldwide. Secondly, the attacks prompted a reevaluation of international relations and the United States' role in global affairs. It fueled the war on terror, leading to military interventions, the establishment of new alliances, and shifts in foreign policies. Furthermore, the 9/11 attacks raised important questions about religious extremism, ideological motivations, and the delicate balance between security and civil liberties. Examining these aspects in an essay fosters critical thinking and provides an opportunity to delve into the complexities surrounding terrorism and its aftermath.

1. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. (2004). The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. W. W. Norton & Company. 2. Summers, A., & Swan, R. (2011). The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden. Ballantine Books. 3. Jenkins, B. M. (2006). The 9/11 Wars. Hill and Wang. 4. Smith, M. L. (2011). Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez. University of Chicago Press. 5. Bowden, M. (2006). Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam. Grove Press. 6. Wright, L. (2006). The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Vintage. 7. Bamford, J. (2008). The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America. Anchor Books. 8. Thompson, W., & Thompson, S. (2011). The Disappearance of the Social in American Social Psychology. Cambridge University Press. 9. Boyle, M. (2007). Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us. Potomac Books. 10. Zelikow, P., & Shenon, P. (2021). The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions. Interlink Publishing Group.

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Students Reflect on 9/11 in Essay Contest

First responders and supporters from the city of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. have once again sponsored an essay contest in which local students can reflect on their understanding of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

The second annual September 11th remembrance essay contest, which is open to Palm Beach Gardens residents and the dependents of city employees, requests that students in grades nine to 12 "reflect on how the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 affected our nation and the future of the world."

Building on their successful 2015 contest , the contest is being sponsored by the Palm Beach Gardens Police Foundation, Fire Chief’s Association of Palm Beach County and Palm Beach Gardens Fire-Rescue, according to the Palm Beach Post .

Essay submissions should be between 500 to 700 words and applications are due Aug. 15, 2016. Three winners will be chosen. 

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Chalkbeat asked readers who were in school on September 11, 2001, to share what they remember about that day, 20 years ago. (Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis vis Getty Images)

On 9/11, they were at school. Here’s what happened inside their classrooms.

Chalkbeat asked teachers and students what they remember about that day of terror 20 years later..

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

It was the beginning of the school day at the beginning of the school year at the beginning of the millennium. Millions of American children were in classrooms on the morning of September 11, 2001, when hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Then-President George W. Bush was in the classroom , too — reading with young Florida students until his chief of staff whispered in his ear: “America is under attack.”

Across the country that morning, there were hushed conversations among teachers and attempts to explain to students what was happening — or shield them from it. Students remember pained looks on their teachers’ faces. Some said it was the reaction of the adults around them, rather than the images of burning buildings and pulverized steel, that conveyed the life-changing nature of the attacks. 

News back then moved slowly by today’s standards. The world was still largely without smartphones or social media. Teachers and students watched the news on boxy TVs strapped to rolling carts that moved between classrooms. Across the country that day, lesson plans were futile. Then, one by one, students were called out of class as parents arrived early to bring them home.

In New York City, things were even more dramatic —  the day’s horrific events were playing out nearby. At P.S. 1, in Lower Manhattan, one teacher remembers another lowering the shades so kindergartners wouldn’t see the burning towers out the window. At P.S. 124, a few blocks away, another teacher watched as crowds covered in ash walked toward Brooklyn. New York City educators did their best to provide students a steady hand even as some feared for loved ones who worked in the towers, or struggled to get through to friends and family on jammed phone lines. There were harrowing evacuations,  long walks home, and eerily silent subway rides. 

As for the aftermath of 9/11, some teachers and students recalled with nostalgia how Americans came together, and they wondered if such shows of unity would be possible today. Others saw the attacks as having the opposite effect, citing the rise in Islamophobia, and long, costly, and polarizing wars that are only now ending.

With the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaching, Chalkbeat asked those in school on that day to share what they remember and what they think K-12 students growing up today should know about the generation-defining terror attacks.

These are their words, edited for length and clarity. 

Paula McDonel was teaching a World Geography class at Collierville High School in Collierville, Tennessee, when a colleague, looking somber,  entered her classroom.

She asked me where my husband, a FedEx pilot, was that morning. I said he was home. Only then did she tell me that a commercial plane had struck the World Trade Center. I asked my students if anyone had a parent that was flying on a plane that morning. Our community had many pilots and others who may have been flying. No one in my class did. We had finished our lesson, so I turned on CNN, thinking this would be part of the current events we covered in class that week. We didn’t understand how radically our day was changing.

McDonel is retired and lives in Rosharon, Texas.

Debbie Castellani, then a student-teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was teaching a World History class alongside her mentor teacher.

Suddenly, another teacher burst into the room and yelled: “Oh my goodness, the World Trade Center was just bombed!” The students started to chatter, and we tried to calm them, frustrated that this teacher thought it appropriate to share this publicly in front of the students, but also concerned about this news. 

Between periods, my mentor teacher and I were able to slip into a workroom where a science teacher had a television. This was all pre-smartphone. The news featured the first World Trade tower with smoke billowing from the side, and the newscasters were sharing that a plane had crashed into the building. Then, suddenly, we saw the second plane flying into the south tower.

Castellani is now a high school history teacher in Highland Park, Illinois.

Yvette Ho taught kindergarten at P.S. 1 Alfred Smith School in Lower Manhattan. On the morning of 9/11, she remembers hearing a crash, followed by sirens.

I was a new teacher at the school and was so unaware of the events that were taking place just blocks away. I kept teaching. I even brought the class to their scheduled art class. When we arrived at the art room, the class of older children was buzzing with a nervous energy, and the teacher had a look of shock on her face as she lowered the window shades. The fifth-floor room had a direct view of the towers, and the students were witnessing people jumping out of windows.

Ho is an early childhood administrator in New York City.

Katie Lootens, a seventh grader at Northview Middle School in Indianapolis, was on the school bus just before 9 a.m. Eastern that day.

The last girl to get on told us something “bad” had happened but didn’t know exactly what. When we got to school, half of the students were worried about the attacks, and the other half were worried about a rumor that a kid had brought a gun on the bus. Once we got to homeroom, my teacher had the news on, and we just watched.

The second plane hit during first period, French. Most kids didn’t fully understand what was going on or the gravity of the situation, but we were worried because we had never seen our teachers this worried. Later in the day, my English language arts teacher had us journal our feelings and then share. By social studies that afternoon, I remember my teacher pulling out the map and showing us where Afghanistan was. I remember my math teacher trying to teach us math, but nobody was paying attention, and eventually, he gave up and put the news back on. In band and PE, we had the option to participate in the normal day if we wanted some normalcy, or we could sit out if we wanted.  

Lootens now teaches English learners in Washington, D.C.

Mike Brown, a sixth grade teacher at Berkeley Middle School in Williamsburg, Virginia, was reviewing the day’s agenda with the students in his homeroom when he heard a commotion outside his classroom.

Middle school teachers very quickly are able to decipher kids running in the hallway. This was not that. I heard an “oh my God,” at which point I walked quickly to look out into the hallway. One of my teacher teammates was approaching the room as I was opening the door. She had a startled look on her face and asked if I was watching TV. When I turned it on, we were immediately heartbroken for the people that were on the plane as well as those in the building that was just hit. But we still thought it was a tragic accident. That only lasted for a minute as the news camera focused on the burning building caught a glimpse of a second plane hitting the second tower. Immediately we knew our country was under attack, and we were sitting in the middle of a military town. A number of my students’ parents were living in the neighborhood solely because they were enlisted in the military. 

Brown is the director of new school development at New Schools for Alabama. He lives in Memphis.

Eric Nordstrom was a student at Battle Mountain High School in Edwards, Colorado. When the news first broke, Nordstrom’s English teacher, Mr. Loetscher, took the class down to the cafeteria, where there were TVs with cable.

Prior to the second plane hitting, it seemed like there was confusion over what was happening. The second strike made it clear that it was an attack, which made things more terrifying and confusing, especially to a high school student. 

Now, looking back, I mostly think about all of the terrible things that have emanated from that terrible day. Whether it’s the lives lost, the money squandered that we could have done actual good with, the many stupid policies that came out of the aftermath that do nothing to keep us safe, or how it caused so many people to abandon their moral compasses and embrace hate. I think about the anti-Islam hate that spiked overnight.

Nordstrom lives in Vail, Colorado.

Alex Tronolone, a junior at Curtis High School in Staten Island, was the photographer for his school’s yearbook and newspaper. After the first plane crashed into the north tower, he was called out of class to snap some pictures. As he made his way up to the roof, where the janitors were looking out at the towers, Tronolone was imagining a small passenger plane.

When I finally got to the roof, you could tell it was more than that. While I was up there, the first tower fell. At first, it looked like water was being used to put out the fires, but as the smoke spread and cleared, it became obvious that the tower fell. After that, I returned to class, incredulous. I remember looking at my watch to note the date because I knew it would be something that would be remembered. 

Tronolone is an educator from Staten Island.

Rashid Johnson taught fourth grade at Bruce-Monroe Elementary School in Washington, D.C. The principal there began evacuating the school after a third plane hit the Pentagon. (A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field soon after.)

I was paralyzed, and my students were terrified and asking me if we were going to die. It felt like an alien invasion.

Johnson is a senior director of school support in New York City.

Barbara Gottschalk was a teacher at Flynn Middle School in Michigan’s Warren Consolidated Schools district. As events unfolded that morning, school leaders told teachers to turn off their TVs and keep teaching.

The message was to continue on and not let the students know. At the end of the school day, the principal came on the intercom to announce after-school activities had been canceled. One of my students said, “I wonder why they’re canceling everything.” That’s how protected we’d managed to keep our students. Our principal wanted the students to learn about this from their family members. To this day, I admire how my principal handled this.

Gottschalk is retired and lives in North Carolina.

Gloria Turner,  a teacher at Southside Middle School in Florence, South Carolina, remembers the principal coming over the loudspeaker to say that we could not watch the news on TV or the computer.

We turned on the radio instead. I spent the day calming the fears of young teenagers while trying to control my own. All these years later, the unity of our nation is what comes to mind. We had prayer services in the park, and people from all walks of life attended. This is unusual in our town. We held hands and prayed and hugged. American flags were everywhere.

Turner teaches media arts and theatre in Florence, South Carolina.

Alyson Starks was in her fifth grade math class at Mt. Juliet Elementary School in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, when the science teacher, Ms. Jeffries, rushed into the room without knocking.

Ms. Jeffries told Mrs. Hahn something behind the piece of paper as if to tell her a secret. Mrs. Hahn rolled in the TV — those big ones, strapped to a rolling cart with the VHS that never worked — and turned on the news. Later that day, I remember getting off the bus and my parents being home. They were never home when my brother and I got home from school. The TV was on, and I’ll remember my mom’s face as she turned to notice us walk in for the rest of my life.

Starks is a senior graphic designer in Nashville.

Suzanne Werner was an educator at P.S. 124, which backs up to the Manhattan Bridge. That morning she was asked to cover for a fifth grade teacher whose husband worked at the World Trade Center.

At first, there was a steady stream of sirens, then silence and a steady stream of people covered in ash walking [toward Brooklyn]. By noon most of the children had been picked up, and the teachers were sent home. I stayed with a small group and the principal till 4 or 4:30 p.m., when the last child was collected. By then, the F train was running, and I was able to get back home to Brooklyn. The train was packed and completely silent. 

It was so hard to get back to teaching that fall. There were so many distractions. Chinatown was impacted in so many ways. Businesses closed. There was no phone service for many, many months. The stench of the cloud hung over the neighborhood. The number of boxes of letters and boxes of teddy bears from school kids all over the country was overwhelming.

Werner is retired and lives in New York City.

Latasha Fields-Frisco, who on 9/11 was the dean of students at Bronx School for Law, Government & Justice. Her own daughter had just started kindergarten.

It was a regular morning that ended with a bomb threat to our school. We evacuated and ensured all of our students were safe. I lived in Harlem at the time and was unable to drive home. The bridges were closed off. I walked from the Bronx to 122nd Street in Harlem. It seemed like the longest walk ever. I was happy to reach home safely to see my family and just broke down in tears.

Fields-Frisco is an assistant principal in the Bronx.

Sonia Algarin was a school counselor at Health Opportunities High School in the Bronx when the NYPD ordered an evacuation of the school. The city had shut down mass transit temporarily.

How could we dismiss students who now had to walk home during a crisis situation? When would their parents get home if they had to walk from their jobs? Was it safer to keep them at the school? Our school was across the street from a highway, the Major Deegan. The police said we needed to seek shelter at Hostos Community College three blocks away. We had to walk all 500 students through the busy streets. Some were scared there could be another bombing or another airplane crashing into Yankee Stadium 10 blocks away. 

Algarin is a school counselor in the Bronx.

Sunny Asra, a fifth grader at P.S. 220 Edward Mandel School in Queens, thinks about the repercussions of 9/11 for America’s South Asian community.

[On Sept. 13], schools had a two-hour delayed opening. Still having not processed the events, it started to hit us when the kids met each other and our parents hugged one another, and we kind of did the same. In the following weeks, major hate was thrown at the South Asian community due to a lack of knowledge about religion and race. Being that I had a turban, I was even more fearful. Many innocent South Asians were killed, stabbed, and beaten.

Asra is an operations manager for the New York City Department of Education. He lives on Long Island.

Elvis Santana, a student at P.S. 66 in the Bronx, remembers listening to the radio that morning from under his desk at school. Many of his classmates wondered aloud if their parents were OK and tried to call them.

It was and still is the most devastating storyline of my life. One moment you’re in class learning, and the next, you’re thinking about death, violence, religion, war, and safety all at once. As a Bronx native, by the age of 8, you have already previewed violence and discrimination. The incident of 9/11 broadened that violence and triggered something we weren’t prepared to deal with. To anyone born after 2001, it  was a testament to how America handled hatred and violence. In the end, we failed in achieving our objective, and today we see that in places like Afghanistan.

Santana is an education outreach director in the Bronx.

Dale Chu, a third grade teacher in East Palo Alto, California, heard about the terror attack from a local Spanish-language radio station on his drive to work. He had no idea of the scale of the disaster until he walked into the teachers lounge and saw the images on TV.

For the most part, we decided not to address it with our students at the time because of their age and because the feelings were all so visceral. I also vividly remember my brother in Los Angeles calling me that morning, and me stepping out of my classroom to take it. He told me that America was now at war. 

9/11 is one of those rare life-defining moments. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years. The recent image of the Afghan boy falling from the U.S. Air Force jet over Kabul brought back for me — in stark relief —  this picture of a falling man from the World Trade Center . Most of all, I remember how I felt in the following weeks. The sense of national pride and unity, like when George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at the World Series game in New York City. Given today’s raging culture wars and swirling currents of polarization, we could use a little bit of that now.

Chu is an education consultant in Parker, Colorado.

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Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of 9/11

Table of contents.

Americans watched in horror as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 20 years later, they watched in sorrow as the nation’s military mission in Afghanistan – which began less than a month after 9/11 – came to a bloody and chaotic conclusion.

The enduring power of the Sept. 11 attacks is clear: An overwhelming share of Americans who are old enough to recall the day remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Yet an ever-growing number of Americans have no personal memory of that day, either because they were too young or not yet born.

A review of U.S. public opinion in the two decades since 9/11 reveals how a badly shaken nation came together, briefly, in a spirit of sadness and patriotism; how the public initially rallied behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, though support waned over time; and how Americans viewed the threat of terrorism at home and the steps the government took to combat it.

As the country comes to grips with the tumultuous exit of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, the departure has raised long-term questions about U.S. foreign policy and America’s place in the world. Yet the public’s initial judgments on that mission are clear: A majority endorses the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, even as it criticizes the Biden administration’s handling of the situation. And after a war that cost thousands of lives – including more than 2,000 American service members – and trillions of dollars in military spending, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that 69% of U.S. adults say the United States has mostly failed to achieve its goals in Afghanistan.

This examination of how the United States changed in the two decades following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is based on an analysis of past public opinion survey data from Pew Research Center, news reports and other sources.

Current data is from a Pew Research Center survey of 10,348 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 23-29, 2021. Most of the interviewing was conducted before the Aug. 26 suicide bombing at Kabul airport, and all of it was conducted before the completion of the evacuation. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the  ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used  for the report, along with responses, and  its methodology .

A devastating emotional toll, a lasting historical legacy

Shock, sadness, fear, anger: The 9/11 attacks inflicted a devastating emotional toll on Americans. But as horrible as the events of that day were, a 63% majority of Americans said they couldn’t stop watching news coverage of the attacks.

Our first survey following the attacks went into the field just days after 9/11, from Sept. 13-17, 2001. A sizable majority of adults (71%) said they felt depressed, nearly half (49%) had difficulty concentrating and a third said they had trouble sleeping.

It was an era in which television was still the public’s dominant news source – 90% said they got most of their news about the attacks from television, compared with just 5% who got news online – and the televised images of death and destruction had a powerful impact. Around nine-in-ten Americans (92%) agreed with the statement, “I feel sad when watching TV coverage of the terrorist attacks.” A sizable majority (77%) also found it frightening to watch – but most did so anyway.

Americans were enraged by the attacks, too. Three weeks after 9/11 , even as the psychological stress began to ease somewhat, 87% said they felt angry about the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Fear was widespread, not just in the days immediately after the attacks, but throughout the fall of 2001. Most Americans said they were very (28%) or somewhat (45%) worried about another attack . When asked a year later to describe how their lives changed in a major way, about half of adults said they felt more afraid, more careful, more distrustful or more vulnerable as a result of the attacks.

Even after the immediate shock of 9/11 had subsided, concerns over terrorism remained at higher levels in major cities – especially New York and Washington – than in small towns and rural areas. The personal impact of the attacks also was felt more keenly in the cities directly targeted: Nearly a year after 9/11, about six-in-ten adults in the New York (61%) and Washington (63%) areas said the attacks had changed their lives at least a little, compared with 49% nationwide. This sentiment was shared by residents of other large cities. A quarter of people who lived in large cities nationwide said their lives had changed in a major way – twice the rate found in small towns and rural areas.

The impacts of the Sept. 11 attacks were deeply felt and slow to dissipate. By the following August, half of U.S. adults said the country “had changed in a major way” – a number that actually increased , to 61%, 10 years after the event .

A year after the attacks, in an open-ended question, most Americans – 80% – cited 9/11 as the most important event that had occurred in the country during the previous year. Strikingly, a larger share also volunteered it as the most important thing that happened to them personally in the prior year (38%) than mentioned other typical life events, such as births or deaths. Again, the personal impact was much greater in New York and Washington, where 51% and 44%, respectively, pointed to the attacks as the most significant personal event over the prior year.

Just as memories of 9/11 are firmly embedded in the minds of most Americans old enough to recall the attacks, their historical importance far surpasses other events in people’s lifetimes. In a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in association with A+E Networks’ HISTORY in 2016 – 15 years after 9/11 – 76% of adults named the Sept. 11 attacks as one of the 10 historical events of their lifetime that had the greatest impact on the country. The election of Barack Obama as the first Black president was a distant second, at 40%.

The importance of 9/11 transcended age, gender, geographic and even political differences. The 2016 study noted that while partisans agreed on little else that election cycle, more than seven-in-ten Republicans and Democrats named the attacks as one of their top 10 historic events.

9/11 transformed U.S. public opinion, but many of its impacts were short-lived

It is difficult to think of an event that so profoundly transformed U.S. public opinion across so many dimensions as the 9/11 attacks. While Americans had a shared sense of anguish after Sept. 11, the months that followed also were marked by rare spirit of public unity.

Patriotic sentiment surged in the aftermath of 9/11. After the U.S. and its allies launched airstrikes against Taliban and al-Qaida forces in early October 2001, 79% of adults said they had displayed an American flag. A year later, a 62% majority said they had often felt patriotic as a result of the 9/11 attacks.

Moreover, the public largely set aside political differences and rallied in support of the nation’s major institutions, as well as its political leadership. In October 2001, 60% of adults expressed trust in the federal government – a level not reached in the previous three decades, nor approached in the two decades since then.

George W. Bush, who had become president nine months earlier after a fiercely contested election, saw his job approval rise 35 percentage points in the space of three weeks. In late September 2001, 86% of adults – including nearly all Republicans (96%) and a sizable majority of Democrats (78%) – approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president.

Americans also turned to religion and faith in large numbers. In the days and weeks after 9/11, most Americans said they were praying more often. In November 2001, 78% said religion’s influence in American life was increasing, more than double the share who said that eight months earlier and – like public trust in the federal government – the highest level in four decades .

Public esteem rose even for some institutions that usually are not that popular with Americans. For example, in November 2001, news organizations received record-high ratings for professionalism. Around seven-in-ten adults (69%) said they “stand up for America,” while 60% said they protected democracy.

Yet in many ways, the “9/11 effect” on public opinion was short-lived. Public trust in government, as well as confidence in other institutions, declined throughout the 2000s. By 2005, following another major national tragedy – the government’s mishandling of the relief effort for victims of Hurricane Katrina – just 31% said they trusted the federal government, half the share who said so in the months after 9/11. Trust has remained relatively low for the past two decades: In April of this year, only 24% said they trusted the government just about always or most of the time.

Bush’s approval ratings, meanwhile, never again reached the lofty heights they did shortly after 9/11. By the end of his presidency, in December 2008, just 24% approved of his job performance.

U.S. military response: Afghanistan and Iraq

With the U.S. now formally out of Afghanistan – and with the Taliban firmly in control of the country – most Americans (69%) say the U.S. failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan.

But 20 years ago, in the days and weeks following 9/11, Americans overwhelmingly supported military action against those responsible for the attacks. In mid-September 2001, 77% favored U.S. military action, including the deployment of ground forces, “to retaliate against whoever is responsible for the terrorist attacks, even if that means U.S. armed forces might suffer thousands of casualties.”

Many Americans were impatient for the Bush administration to give the go-ahead for military action. In a late September 2001 survey, nearly half the public (49%) said their larger concern was that the Bush administration would not strike quickly enough against the terrorists; just 34% said they worried the administration would move too quickly.

Even in the early stages of the U.S. military response, few adults expected a military operation to produce quick results: 69% said it would take months or years to dismantle terrorist networks, including 38% who said it would take years and 31% who said it would take several months. Just 18% said it would take days or weeks.

The public’s support for military intervention was evident in other ways as well. Throughout the fall of 2001, more Americans said the best way to prevent future terrorism was to take military action abroad rather than build up defenses at home. In early October 2001, 45% prioritized military action to destroy terrorist networks around the world, while 36% said the priority should be to build terrorism defenses at home.

Initially, the public was confident that the U.S. military effort to destroy terrorist networks would succeed. A sizable majority (76%) was confident in the success of this mission, with 39% saying they were very confident.

Support for the war in Afghanistan continued at a high level for several years to come. In a survey conducted in early 2002, a few months after the start of the war, 83% of Americans said they approved of the U.S.-led military campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan. In 2006, several years after the United States began combat operations in Afghanistan, 69% of adults said the U.S. made the right decision in using military force in Afghanistan. Only two-in-ten said it was the wrong decision.

But as the conflict dragged on, first through Bush’s presidency and then through Obama’s administration, support wavered and a growing share of Americans favored the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. In June 2009, during Obama’s first year in office, 38% of Americans said U.S. troops should be removed from Afghanistan as soon as possible. The share favoring a speedy troop withdrawal increased over the next few years. A turning point came in May 2011, when U.S. Navy SEALs launched a risky operation against Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and killed the al-Qaida leader.

The public reacted to bin Laden’s death with more of a sense of relief than jubilation . A month later, for the first time , a majority of Americans (56%) said that U.S. forces should be brought home as soon as possible, while 39% favored U.S. forces in the country until the situation had stabilized.

Over the next decade, U.S. forces in Afghanistan were gradually drawn down, in fits and starts, over the administrations of three presidents – Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Meanwhile, public support for the decision to use force in Afghanistan, which had been widespread at the start of the conflict, declined . Today, after the tumultuous exit of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a slim majority of adults (54%) say the decision to withdraw troops from the country was the right decision; 42% say it was the wrong decision. 

There was a similar trajectory in public attitudes toward a much more expansive conflict that was part of what Bush termed the “war on terror”: the U.S. war in Iraq. Throughout the contentious, yearlong debate before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Americans widely supported the use of military force to end Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq.

Importantly, most Americans thought – erroneously, as it turned out – there was a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks. In October 2002, 66% said that Saddam helped the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In April 2003, during the first month of the Iraq War, 71% said the U.S. made the right decision to go to war in Iraq. On the 15th anniversary of the war in 2018, just 43% said it was the right decision. As with the case with U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, more Americans said that the U.S. had failed (53%) than succeeded (39%) in achieving its goals in Iraq.

The ‘new normal’: The threat of terrorism after 9/11

There have been no terrorist attacks on the scale of 9/11 in two decades, but from the public’s perspective, the threat has never fully gone away. Defending the country from future terrorist attacks has been at or near the top of Pew Research Center’s annual survey on policy priorities since 2002.

In January 2002, just months after the 2001 attacks, 83% of Americans said “defending the country from future terrorist attacks” was a top priority for the president and Congress, the highest for any issue. Since then, sizable majorities have continued to cite that as a top policy priority.

Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats have consistently ranked terrorism as a top priority over the past two decades, with some exceptions. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have remained more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say defending the country from future attacks should be a top priority. In recent years, the partisan gap has grown larger as Democrats began to rank the issue lower relative to other domestic concerns. The public’s concerns about another attack also remained fairly steady in the years after 9/11, through near-misses and the federal government’s numerous “Orange Alerts” – the second-most serious threat level on its color-coded terrorism warning system.

A 2010 analysis of the public’s terrorism concerns found that the share of Americans who said they were very concerned about another attack had ranged from about 15% to roughly 25% since 2002. The only time when concerns were elevated was in February 2003, shortly before the start of the U.S. war in Iraq.

In recent years, the share of Americans who point to terrorism as a major national problem has declined sharply as issues such as the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and racism have emerged as more pressing problems in the public’s eyes.

In 2016, about half of the public (53%) said terrorism was a very big national problem in the country. This declined to about four-in-ten from 2017 to 2019. Last year, only a quarter of Americans said that terrorism was a very big problem.

This year, prior to the U.S. withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban takeover of the country, a somewhat larger share of adults said domestic terrorism was a very big national problem (35%) than said the same about international terrorism . But much larger shares cited concerns such as the affordability of health care (56%) and the federal budget deficit (49%) as major problems than said that about either domestic or international terrorism.

Still, recent events in Afghanistan raise the possibility that opinion could be changing, at least in the short term. In a late August survey, 89% of Americans said the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was a threat to the security of the U.S., including 46% who said it was a major threat.

Addressing the threat of terrorism at home and abroad

Just as Americans largely endorsed the use of U.S. military force as a response to the 9/11 attacks, they were initially open to a variety of other far-reaching measures to combat terrorism at home and abroad. In the days following the attack, for example, majorities favored a requirement that all citizens carry national ID cards, allowing the CIA to contract with criminals in pursuing suspected terrorists and permitting the CIA to conduct assassinations overseas when pursuing suspected terrorists.

However, most people drew the line against allowing the government to monitor their own emails and phone calls (77% opposed this). And while 29% supported the establishment of internment camps for legal immigrants from unfriendly countries during times of tension or crisis – along the lines of those in which thousands of Japanese American citizens were confined during World War II – 57% opposed such a measure.

It was clear that from the public’s perspective, the balance between protecting civil liberties and protecting the country from terrorism had shifted. In September 2001 and January 2002, 55% majorities said that, in order to curb terrorism in the U.S., it was necessary for the average citizen to give up some civil liberties. In 1997, just 29% said this would be necessary while 62% said it would not.

For most of the next two decades, more Americans said their bigger concern was that the government had not gone far enough in protecting the country from terrorism than said it went too far in restricting civil liberties.

The public also did not rule out the use of torture to extract information from terrorist suspects. In a 2015 survey of 40 nations, the U.S. was one of only 12 where a majority of the public said the use of torture against terrorists could be justified to gain information about a possible attack.

Views of Muslims, Islam grew more partisan in years after 9/11

Concerned about a possible backlash against Muslims in the U.S. in the days after 9/11, then-President George W. Bush gave a speech to the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., in which he declared: “Islam is peace.” For a brief period, a large segment of Americans agreed. In November 2001, 59% of U.S. adults had a favorable view of Muslim Americans, up from 45% in March 2001, with comparable majorities of Democrats and Republicans expressing a favorable opinion.

This spirit of unity and comity was not to last. In a September 2001 survey, 28% of adults said they had grown more suspicious of people of Middle Eastern descent; that grew to 36% less than a year later.

Republicans, in particular, increasingly came to associate Muslims and Islam with violence. In 2002, just a quarter of Americans – including 32% of Republicans and 23% of Democrats – said Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers. About twice as many (51%) said it was not.

But within the next few years, most Republicans and GOP leaners said Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence. Today, 72% of Republicans express this view, according to an August 2021 survey.

Democrats consistently have been far less likely than Republicans to associate Islam with violence. In the Center’s latest survey, 32% of Democrats say this. Still, Democrats are somewhat more likely to say this today than they have been in recent years: In 2019, 28% of Democrats said Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers than other religions.

The partisan gap in views of Muslims and Islam in the U.S. is evident in other meaningful ways. For example, a 2017 survey found that half of U.S. adults said that “Islam is not part of mainstream American society” – a view held by nearly seven-in-ten Republicans (68%) but only 37% of Democrats. In a separate survey conducted in 2017, 56% of Republicans said there was a great deal or fair amount of extremism among U.S. Muslims, with fewer than half as many Democrats (22%) saying the same.

The rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in the aftermath of 9/11 has had a profound effect on the growing number of Muslims living in the United States. Surveys of U.S. Muslims from 2007-2017 found increasing shares saying they have personally experienced discrimination and received public expression of support.

It has now been two decades since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 – where only the courage of passengers and crew possibly prevented an even deadlier terror attack.

For most who are old enough to remember, it is a day that is impossible to forget. In many ways, 9/11 reshaped how Americans think of war and peace, their own personal safety and their fellow citizens. And today, the violence and chaos in a country half a world away brings with it the opening of an uncertain new chapter in the post-9/11 era.

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

How Students in 12 Countries Are Taught About 9/11

By Damien Cave and Yousur Al-Hlou Sept. 9, 2021

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9/11 and After

> Venezuela

> United Kingdom

> South Korea

> France

> Brazil

> Germany

> United States

> Australia

> Russia

> South Africa

> Pakistan

Twelve teenagers born after 9/11 told us what they have learned about the event and its aftermath — and what has been left out.

By Damien Cave and Yousur Al-Hlou

Sept. 10, 2021

For those born after Sept. 11, 2001, there are no memories of that dark day to shape their views. There is only education — formal, and informal.

With the terrorist attack and the wars that followed having entered the realm of history, we sought to understand how these events are being taught. What is stressed? What is overlooked?

We examined textbooks from all over and talked with educators. But mostly we wanted to hear directly from young people, and so we interviewed students born after the attacks in 12 countries.

Their voices offered only a hint of the diversity of instruction on Sept. 11 worldwide, but their impressions and experiences were striking.

From Moscow to Manhattan, from Karachi to Caracas, from Berlin to Baghdad, students have come away with very different perspectives on terrorism, Islam, war and American power.

If there is a consensus, it can be found in what students told us their education has been missing: depth.

They want to know more.

What did you learn about 9/11 in school?

The lessons taught about 9/11 reflect national agendas — if it is taught at all..

I’m actually certain we’ve never studied it. > I’m actually certain we’ve never studied it. Polina Russia

These types of discussions don’t take place in our schools. > These types of discussions don’t take place in our schools. Faisal Rehman Pakistan

In my primary school, they briefly mentioned it. > In my primary school, they briefly mentioned it. Xolisa Nohenda South Africa

The teacher had slides of the planes hitting the twin towers. > The teacher had slides of the planes hitting the twin towers. Lucas Villar Brazil

We were supposed to watch a documentary about 9/11 > We were supposed to watch a documentary about 9/11 Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

in high school, but in the end they never played it. > in high school, but in the end they never played it. Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

We talked about 9/11 being the first event that > We talked about 9/11 being the first event that Noémi Grette France

showed that terrorism existed, and that it was > showed that terrorism existed, and that it was Noémi Grette France

a threat to the whole world. > a threat to the whole world. Noémi Grette France

It was taught separately as an example > It was taught separately as an example Kim Donghyeon South Korea

of international conflict post-globalization. > of international conflict post-globalization. Kim Donghyeon South Korea

While talking to my history professor, > While talking to my history professor, Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

he told me it happened to threaten the U.S. > he told me it happened to threaten the U.S. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

And that’s what resulted in the U.S. occupying Iraq. > And that’s what resulted in the U.S. occupying Iraq. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

In seventh grade, we were given a project > In seventh grade, we were given a project Karen Zhang United States

to interview a family member who was personally > to interview a family member who was personally Karen Zhang United States

affected by 9/11. > affected by 9/11. Karen Zhang United States

That’s when I started to have a lot deeper connection > That’s when I started to have a lot deeper connection Karen Zhang United States

to the event. > to the event. Karen Zhang United States

Schools around the world vary widely in their approach to teaching 9/11, if they teach it at all.

Biz Herman, a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, has collected 850 textbooks from 90 countries. We worked with Ms. Herman to examine many of the textbooks commonly used by middle and high school students and found that Iran, Venezuela, Egypt, Syria and Mozambique are a few of the countries that do not mention the attack.

In New York and elsewhere in the United States, the Sept. 11 curriculum has been overtly personal and emotional. Students have been asked by their teachers to explore the experiences of their own families.

But at a remove from the bloodshed, and with attitudes of varying warmth toward the U.S., other countries handle the subject with their own nationalistic tilt.

In England, descriptions of the attack appear in one popular textbook in a section titled “Terrorist Groups in Action,” which also explores how the British government handled the Irish Republican Army. Spanish, French and Russian textbooks discuss Sept. 11 alongside terrorist attacks that struck their own citizens.

Textbooks from (clockwise from top left) Germany, Russia, South Africa, the U.S., Sweden and South Korea. Source: Biz Herman, University of California, Berkeley

Textbooks from (clockwise from top left) Germany, Russia, South Korea, the U.S., Sweden and South Africa. Source: Biz Herman, University of California, Berkeley

But some countries teach students that the events of that day offer a lesson, or perhaps a warning, for the world’s powers.

South Korean and Indian students learn that the strikes on the World Trade Center in New York and on Washington were a consequence of globalization. A Pakistani textbook describes the attack, which left almost 3,000 dead, as an “incident,” and dwells on the risks that come from American hegemony.

Striking an even sharper note, a textbook of Modern and Contemporary World History from China includes a photo of the twin towers in flames near a section on geopolitics. “No one power can dominate the world on its own,” it says.

“What are textbooks and what are they for?” Ms. Herman asks. “It would seem simple: that it's for educating kids. But it’s actually for setting national agendas, for sharing a particular narrative. And sometimes it’s for educating kids.”

How did you first learn about 9/11?

Horrific images endure. but what came next is often poorly explained..

I don’t remember precisely how old I was, > I don’t remember precisely how old I was, Xolisa Nohenda South Africa

but I remember I saw it on a news report. > but I remember I saw it on a news report. Xolisa Nohenda South Africa

Buildings being bombed, like the terrorist attacks > Buildings being bombed, like the terrorist attacks Xolisa Nohenda South Africa

and stuff like that. I never — I was feeling really astonished. > and stuff like that. I never — I was feeling really astonished. Xolisa Nohenda South Africa

It was a right-wing Pakistani newspaper > It was a right-wing Pakistani newspaper Faisal Rehman Pakistan

that came to our house regularly. > that came to our house regularly. Faisal Rehman Pakistan

The headline was, > The headline was, Faisal Rehman Pakistan

“After the 9/11 attack, the U.S. downfall has begun.” > “After the 9/11 attack, the U.S. downfall has begun.” Faisal Rehman Pakistan

It was a documentary on television. > It was a documentary on television. Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

I felt sad > I felt sad Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

hearing from so many people who had seen their colleagues die > hearing from so many people who had seen their colleagues die Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

because they could not get out in time. > because they could not get out in time. Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

I was like, watching true crime videos excessively > I was like, watching true crime videos excessively Polina Russia

on YouTube when I saw photos and videos of people > on YouTube when I saw photos and videos of people Polina Russia

jumping out. > jumping out. Polina Russia

I think that’s why there are conspiracy theories > I think that’s why there are conspiracy theories Noémi Grette France

around this. > around this. Noémi Grette France

It’s because it’s so shocking. > It’s because it’s so shocking. Noémi Grette France

It’s something that is so threatening and frightening > It’s something that is so threatening and frightening Noémi Grette France

that when you see it, you just can’t believe it happened. > that when you see it, you just can’t believe it happened. Noémi Grette France

Why was it so easy to hijack four planes? > Why was it so easy to hijack four planes? Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

How did they pass security checks? > How did they pass security checks? Jelena Marie Bielke Germany

Did they have prior intelligence? > Did they have prior intelligence? Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

How did such a big terror incident > How did such a big terror incident Faisal Rehman Pakistan

take place in such a safe country? > take place in such a safe country? Faisal Rehman Pakistan

I still don’t have the answer for that. > I still don’t have the answer for that. Faisal Rehman Pakistan

Many people born after Sept. 11 learn about that day at a young age, but how it happens varies. Some see documentaries about the attack, but others stumble across it on YouTube or hear a chance remark that sets them on a path to learn more.

Many of the students we interviewed said they had first heard 9/11 referred to obliquely, as if the adults talking had forgotten that they were not alive when the attack happened. When asked, the adults would give them a basic rundown of the facts — the hijacked planes, the toppled buildings, the number killed — without much context.

What they remember are the images.

“When you see the archival images, you’re like: How is this possible?” said Noémi Grette, 18, a recent high school graduate from Bordeaux in France.

But the photos and video leave so much unanswered, say young people like Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas, 16, a 10th grader in Ciudad Los Teques, Venezuela.

“The questions that I have are: First, why was it so easy for the Taliban to hijack four airplanes from the U.S.?” she said, mixing up the Taliban with their allies in Al Qaeda. “And the other question that I have is: Why did that war really start between the U.S. and Afghanistan?”

What impact did 9/11 have on your world?

For some teenagers, the american response to 9/11 matters as much as the attacks.

It had such a big impact on the United States, > It had such a big impact on the United States, Karen Zhang United States

and I feel like it’s an event that you can’t really > and I feel like it’s an event that you can’t really Karen Zhang United States

accept just happened, since it was clearly > accept just happened, since it was clearly Karen Zhang United States

purposefully done. It wasn’t an accident. > purposefully done. It wasn’t an accident. Karen Zhang United States

It was a moment where everyone realized > It was a moment where everyone realized Jelena Marie Bielke Germany

that there are, of course, bad people > that there are, of course, bad people Jelena Marie Bielke Germany

and that we are not as safe as we thought we were. > and that we are not as safe as we thought we were. Jelena Marie Bielke Germany

The world didn’t become a better place. > The world didn’t become a better place. Lucas Villar Brazil

It just got worse. > It just got worse. Lucas Villar Brazil

When the war in Afghanistan started, > When the war in Afghanistan started, Faisal Rehman Pakistan

thousands of people were forced to migrate toward Pakistan. > thousands of people were forced to migrate toward Pakistan. Faisal Rehman Pakistan

We had to leave our ancestral area, our home, > We had to leave our ancestral area, our home, Faisal Rehman Pakistan

our land and our property, and we had to migrate > our land and our property, and we had to migrate Faisal Rehman Pakistan

to the city. > to the city. Faisal Rehman Pakistan

It has sparked national conflicts between people. > It has sparked national conflicts between people. Polina Russia

I don’t mean, like, the war itself, > I don’t mean, like, the war itself, Polina Russia

but just the hatred. > but just the hatred. Polina Russia

Because people are frightened of terrorist attacks, > Because people are frightened of terrorist attacks, Noémi Grette France

they tend to stigmatize more Muslim people. > they tend to stigmatize more Muslim people. Noémi Grette France

I think a lot of people, when they think of terrorism, > I think a lot of people, when they think of terrorism, Felix Tonkin Australia

they think of Islamic terrorism. > they think of Islamic terrorism. Felix Tonkin Australia

It’s really sort of painted a sort of a boogeyman, really, > It’s really sort of painted a sort of a boogeyman, really, Felix Tonkin Australia

that a lot of people like to look at. > that a lot of people like to look at. Felix Tonkin Australia

When Saddam Hussein fell, the state, and its security institutions, fell. > When Saddam Hussein fell, the state, and its security institutions, fell. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

And that motivated extremists to roam the streets, > And that motivated extremists to roam the streets, Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

and to threaten people and kill them. > and to threaten people and kill them. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

The death of my father, and many innocent civilians, > The death of my father, and many innocent civilians, Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

is directly tied to the Iraq war. > is directly tied to the Iraq war. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

When the post-9/11 generation assesses the impact of the attack on their lives, they often point to what they can see: the long waits to get through airport security, the concrete bollards at the front of public squares to block a potential truck bomb.

But for many students, the lines between that day and the wars that followed are something of a blur, like a thunderstorm with clouds that have merged.

The ramifications can be deeply personal.

Faisal Rehman, 18, said that America’s invasion of Afghanistan led Taliban fighters to safe houses in the border region of Pakistan where his family lived, forcing them to leave for Karachi. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi, an 18-year-old high school senior in Baghdad, said that if not for the events of Sept. 11, “Saddam Hussein would have still been among us.”

“Regime change” ended dictatorship, he noted, but it also produced more terrorism inside Iraq. His father was shot and killed in 2005 when Mujtaba was just a toddler.

“He was washing his car, which was a big car,” he said. “I was standing next to him.”

For others, like Dorea Nengese, 18, who recently graduated from an East London high school filled with students whose families migrated from Afghanistan, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, Sept. 11 will be forever remembered as a spark for anti-Islamic prejudice and intense debates about whose narratives should be given prominence.

Why, she asked, are students “expected to know everything about America” without learning about how global affairs are viewed by people from other countries?

What did these events teach you about America?

Students aware of 9/11 and what followed are often deeply skeptical of american motives..

The response after 9/11 told me about the U.S. > The response after 9/11 told me about the U.S. Jelena Marie Bielke Germany

that they kind of want justice, > that they kind of want justice, Jelena Marie Bielke Germany

but in a really weird way, kind of, > but in a really weird way, kind of, Jelena Marie Bielke Germany

because it’s not really justice to bomb a country. > because it’s not really justice to bomb a country. Jelena Marie Bielke Germany

Public opinion here is that after 9/11, > Public opinion here is that after 9/11, Faisal Rehman Pakistan

America launched a war against the Taliban > America launched a war against the Taliban Faisal Rehman Pakistan

and terrorists as cover for the occupation of Afghanistan. > and terrorists as cover for the occupation of Afghanistan. Faisal Rehman Pakistan

I really vividly remember I think it was Bush — > I really vividly remember I think it was Bush — Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

I think it was that president — > I think it was that president — Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

him doing all these speeches and saying > him doing all these speeches and saying Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

very emotive kind of slogans like, > very emotive kind of slogans like, Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

“You’re with us or against us.” > “You’re with us or against us.” Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

And the whole war on terror. > And the whole war on terror. Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

As if 9/11 justified everything else that happened. > As if 9/11 justified everything else that happened. Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

Perhaps 9/11 was the perfect pretext for > Perhaps 9/11 was the perfect pretext for Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

George W. Bush to accomplish two goals at once: > George W. Bush to accomplish two goals at once: Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

He brought down the Taliban in Afghanistan > He brought down the Taliban in Afghanistan Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

and then went to Iraq to bring down Saddam Hussein. > and then went to Iraq to bring down Saddam Hussein. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

My history teacher always taught us that > My history teacher always taught us that Noémi Grette France

America has this “peace guard” role > America has this “peace guard” role Noémi Grette France

in the world. > in the world. Noémi Grette France

I think that the U.S. had no choice but to retaliate > I think that the U.S. had no choice but to retaliate Kim Donghyeon South Korea

because the attack took such a huge toll > because the attack took such a huge toll Kim Donghyeon South Korea

on its people. > on its people. Kim Donghyeon South Korea

But I also think the U.S. was too aggressive > But I also think the U.S. was too aggressive Kim Donghyeon South Korea

during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. > during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kim Donghyeon South Korea

For many Americans, remembering Sept. 11 means grappling with the legacy of trauma. With a more international perspective, young people elsewhere often find themselves asking how such a powerful country could be so vulnerable — and what lay at the root of its response at home and around the world.

Some students said American power should still be seen as a force for good. Xolisa Nohenda, 17, a 12th grader in Johannesburg, South Africa, said most of her peers believed that the U.S. “plays a big role in defending people.”

But for many, it has become common to question American motives.

In almost any lesson that touches on the United States, textbooks from many countries emphasize American military might. Some also suggest that the U.S. attacked Afghanistan and Iraq to obtain oil or other natural resources.

Even teenagers who were not taught from those texts seem to have absorbed a sense of deep skepticism.

“I don't know a lot about the war between Iraq and the U.S. but I do know that they, I think, fought about oil, and there was a lot of money involved,” said Jelena Marie Bielke, 16, a high school junior in Berlin. “And the U.S. wanted to get the oil.”

The American response to Sept. 11, she said, showed that the Americans “kind of want justice, but in a really weird way — because it’s not really justice to bomb a country.”

What’s gone wrong with 9/11 education?

Students blame outdated curricula, fear and political agendas for ignoring 9/11 in schools..

Our teachers were anticipating that we’d known about 9/11, > Our teachers were anticipating that we’d known about 9/11, Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

because America — it’s like, how could > because America — it’s like, how could Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

you not know? > you not know? Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

There’s a general consensus that people know > There’s a general consensus that people know Karen Zhang United States

what the event was, especially because > what the event was, especially because Karen Zhang United States

we live in New York City and many of our parents > we live in New York City and many of our parents Karen Zhang United States

had already lived through it. > had already lived through it. Karen Zhang United States

We want to focus more on our country’s history, > We want to focus more on our country’s history, Xolisa Nohenda South Africa

on our continent’s history, and it’s a lot. > on our continent’s history, and it’s a lot. Xolisa Nohenda South Africa

They didn’t want to go into the topic because > They didn’t want to go into the topic because Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

they said that it was too complicated to explain to us. > they said that it was too complicated to explain to us. Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

I remember asking my teacher, > I remember asking my teacher, Faisal Rehman Pakistan

“Sir, I read about 9/11 in the newspaper — > “Sir, I read about 9/11 in the newspaper — Faisal Rehman Pakistan

can you tell me more about it?” > can you tell me more about it?” Faisal Rehman Pakistan

He said firmly, > He said firmly, Faisal Rehman Pakistan

“Son, these wars are political. > “Son, these wars are political. Faisal Rehman Pakistan

We don’t learn such things in school.” > We don’t learn such things in school.” Faisal Rehman Pakistan

For a lot of people who might be teaching 9/11, > For a lot of people who might be teaching 9/11, Felix Tonkin Australia

they don’t really view it as history. > they don’t really view it as history. Felix Tonkin Australia

They view it as a contemporary event > They view it as a contemporary event Felix Tonkin Australia

that happened in their lifetime. > that happened in their lifetime. Felix Tonkin Australia

They suffered the consequences of 9/11. > They suffered the consequences of 9/11. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

When something hurts you, > When something hurts you, Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

or crushes you from the inside, > or crushes you from the inside, Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

then of course you don’t talk about it. > then of course you don’t talk about it. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

We study wars. What is not scary > We study wars. What is not scary Polina Russia

about a war that is very scary about > about a war that is very scary about Polina Russia

a terrorist attack that they won’t talk about? > a terrorist attack that they won’t talk about? Polina Russia

And sort of, like, I think it’s a very > And sort of, like, I think it’s a very Polina Russia

controversial question to be honest. > controversial question to be honest. Polina Russia

Many of the students we interviewed offered sharp insights on why their elders do not teach about Sept. 11 with more context and rigor. Some said schools are always slow to adapt, sticking with outdated textbooks that can take years to update.

“I think it’s time for us to change this educational system and, I don't know, try to focus on something more forward looking,” said Lucas Villar, 18, a high school senior in Rio de Janeiro.

Other students blamed politics and discomfort with trauma.

“I think sometimes some things are not talked about, because maybe the government failed to control it,” said Polina, 19, a university student in Russia, who asked that her surname not be used to protect her privacy and avoid trouble with the authorities.

“Like, I don’t want to get political, but I really do think that some things are not included just because it might sabotage the general picture of the country. Maybe kids would not feel safe in their country, or it might trigger some sort of thought, some negative thinking about their safety, and what they have to go through. Maybe some phobias.”

Felix Tonkin, 17, a 12th grader in Sydney, said some countries (including Australia) may be hindered by a sense of shame about mistakes they made in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“That's a hard thing to teach, absolutely,” he said. “But I think it’s an important thing to teach as well.”

In Karachi, Mr. Rehman said he had once asked his teacher to explain and got this reply: “Son, these wars are political. We don’t learn such things in school. You can learn about them later in life.”

What grade would you give your education?

Students want a more nuanced, contemporary and international education..

A D-plus — because I think that they’ve > A D-plus — because I think that they’ve Felix Tonkin Australia

touched on it briefly, they mentioned it. > touched on it briefly, they mentioned it. Felix Tonkin Australia

But I think that they could go a lot deeper > But I think that they could go a lot deeper Felix Tonkin Australia

and I think there’s a lot more that they could teach us. > and I think there’s a lot more that they could teach us. Felix Tonkin Australia

I would give it a D. > I would give it a D. Faisal Rehman Pakistan

I'm looking at a B-minus here. > I'm looking at a B-minus here. Xolisa Nohenda South Africa

An F. > An F. Polina Russia

I don’t remember discussing it in class ever. > I don’t remember discussing it in class ever. Polina Russia

I give them 2 out of 10. > I give them 2 out of 10. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

A 2.5. > A 2.5. Lucas Villar Brazil

I’d give them 50 points out of 100. > I’d give them 50 points out of 100. Kim Donghyeon South Korea

I would give them a 3 out of 20. > I would give them a 3 out of 20. Ariadna Clareth Sánchez Rojas Venezuela

Maybe a C or a D … plus! > Maybe a C or a D … plus! Noémi Grette France

I’d give them an A. > I’d give them an A. Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

It almost felt like a bit of a privilege to learn about > It almost felt like a bit of a privilege to learn about Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

foreign countries and the history that happened > foreign countries and the history that happened Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

in other parts of the world. > in other parts of the world. Dorea Nengese United Kingdom

Iraqis have a big role in writing the history of these events. > Iraqis have a big role in writing the history of these events. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

They experienced many events that can be compared to 9/11 — > They experienced many events that can be compared to 9/11 — Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

it just happened in a different way. > it just happened in a different way. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

But Iraqis also survived war and destruction. > But Iraqis also survived war and destruction. Mujtaba Ali al-Saadi Iraq

I would try to explain in a better way why 9/11 happened. > I would try to explain in a better way why 9/11 happened. Lucas Villar Brazil

Because I think that for most of us — > Because I think that for most of us — Lucas Villar Brazil

it doesn’t make any sense. > it doesn’t make any sense. Lucas Villar Brazil

Across the board, students born soon after Sept. 11, 2001, told us they longed for their teachers and school systems to embark on a deeper dive into the subject, from the historical context leading up to the attack all the way through the long-term impact.

For many, 9/11 has come to symbolize one of the flaws of modern education: an unwillingness to look more closely at relatively recent events that shape the present.

“I feel lost, because sometimes I watch the news and I don’t understand anything that’s happening,” said Mr. Villar, in Brazil. “And I think the school could help me with that, having more classes about what’s going on now, and not just what happened 300 years ago.”

Several students also said they needed to know more about Sept. 11 because one day they may be called upon to explain the era of terror to their children.

“I feel like I do have responsibility to not only learn about just what happened, but I feel like also just the long lasting legacy of it, and just all the effects and aftermath,” said Karen Zhang, 17, a rising senior at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.

More specifically, she said that along with Sept. 11, “there should be a bit more of, I think, the history of the U.S. in the Middle East.”

Mr. al-Saadi, in Baghdad, said he could understand why so few teachers wanted to teach about 9/11. “When something hurts you, or crushes you from the inside, then of course you don’t talk about it,” he said.

And yet, he and many others argue, that trauma is exactly why the subject must be taught. To process the pain. To learn from the failures. To help the next generation do better than the last.

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By Kevin Roose

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The learning network | teaching 9/11 | ideas and projects from teachers.

Teaching 9/11 | Ideas and Projects From Teachers

Sept. 8, 2011 | Updated

Since this post first went up, more teachers have written – and, the case of a former colleague, called – in to share more ideas. They have been added below. We will add more again soon. Please feel free to share more ideas and thoughts.

As teachers are making plans for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, many are concerned about how to make it meaningful because, they note, today’s K-12 and college students very likely have only dim memories, if that, of the events of that day.

But today’s students did not experience other crucibles in our nation’s and world’s history: slavery, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War. Teachers have always found ways to use engage students in events and difficult issues like these — with the historical record, with representations in literature, film and the arts and with writing and creative projects — to foster their growth into informed, thinking global citizens.

And if you are still feeling reluctant, consider the comment from a student named Rachel on a guest post about why 9/11 should be taught:

I am a student, and to be honest I really thought history was boring because all of the dates you had to remember for tests. But now by reading this Learning Network article I started to think about how you really need to deeply understand the history of something. And by understanding it you will realize that it is essential to human life. I think 9/11 should be taught in schools across the world, and we shouldn’t neglect it, we should understand and remember the event.

In July, we put a call out to teachers , asking them to share teaching approaches that help students forge personal and intellectual connections to 9/11.

Here are the suggestions they shared. (Please note that they have been lightly copy edited and links have been added. Some organizations posted curriculum collections and resources, too, and we’ll include those in a resource collection on Friday.) They are grouped into four categories: Interdisciplinary Ideas, Ideas Using Writing, Literature, Theater and Fine Arts, Ideas Using History and Humanities and Ideas for Younger Students.

Thank you to all the teachers who shared their ideas, and to those who got the word out — especially the National Writing Project, who were extremely helpful in asking their members to contribute ideas.

We hope you will use The Learning Network as a community to keep the sharing going. Please post more suggestions and experiences . We will update this collection as more ideas come in. And thank you for making us part of your plans to teach about 9/11.

Interdisciplinary Ideas

As students enter my classroom each year, I have a list of names of those who died up on the screen. It’s in four columns in alpha order, and the font is tiny. I start by pointing out that only A-D is shown, and that makes an early impact about the sheer number of lives lost.

Then, to introduce the literary elements of mood and tone, I show three very different newspaper front pages from 9/12, including The New York Times . I have them vote on which they would select, and we have a lively discussion about why–the headlines, the image(s) used, which seem more credible, how some seem less credible but better communicate the rage that readers may feel, etc.

To further illustrate the theme of mood/tone in the literature of 9/11, we read Dan Barry’s article “For One 9/11 Family, Five Waves of Grief.” Last year, I had them answer a few written questions after reading, then we shared responses as a group. Some questions were about Barry’s writing style and techniques; others are more personal. (For example, the Petrocellis received calls about parts of their son being found, and I explain that many families received similar calls about wallets and other personal items being recovered. Students write about whether they feel such a find would be a blessing after losing a loved one, or whether they’d rather have closure without the call.)

We’re in Oregon, so my students don’t know people personally affected by 9/11, but there are always some tears as the discussion connects them to their own losses. We don’t have a curriculum for 9/11–this is something I do because I feel it’s important. Each year, I get thanks from kids who say that no one else mentioned 9/11 all day.

I blogged last year about how my lesson has changed as students increasingly don’t remember the day. You may read about it here . — Five Septembers

While I have not finalized my plans for a 9/11 curriculum, I have decided to use sections of “A Nation Challenged” and “Portraits of Grief” in my curriculum. In the immediate years following 9/11 as I attempted to cope with loss, “Portraits of Grief” provided some comfort. These glimpses into the lives of souls lost provided some peace and hope. They also put a face on an immeasurable tragedy. The students who will enter my classes in September will know about the tragedy of 9/11 at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville but they may not know the faces, the souls, lost in that tragedy. It is my hope to share “Portraits of Grief” with them and to acquaint them with those faces and use their portraits as a springboard for writing. — Joan Marie Bellotti, High Tech High School, North Bergen, N.J.

I had my high school students create 9/11 anniversary videos, by allowing them the creativity, to tell a story that was personal to them in some way. You may see their videos here . — Don Goble

Last year I began to incorporate a service project along with my writing prompt I’ve used to discuss 9/11 with my high school English classes. Many of these kids do not remember the events or the aftermath of the attack. The discussions and service project coordinates with a year-long “tolerance” theme. I have a downloadable lesson for teachers (free) and also will incorporate parts of Scholastic’s lesson . — Tracee Orman

I am the principal of Seton Catholic Central High School in Binghamton, NY. We plan on remembering and teaching about 9/11. On Sept. 9, the school’s opening Mass for the school year will be in memory of the victims of 9/11. We have invited Binghamton firefighters, who assisted in recovery efforts, to speak about their impressions and experiences at Ground Zero. We have also invited veterans of the Iraq and Afganistan wars, who have connections with the school, to discuss their roles in these conflicts. Our theology classes will focus on an interfaith discussion of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Our students have grown up with the consequences of 9/11. To have an understanding of the profound issues facing the nation and the globe today they must be familiar with the events of 9/11. The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is a critical teaching moment. — Richard Bucci

An extremely powerful and educational way to learn about 9-11 is through an organization like September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows . They are family members of 9/11 victims who have figure out how to turn their grief into steps towards peace, justice, and reconciliation. This organization recently collaborated with an educational magazine, The Change Agent ( free online ) to produce materials for the classroom. Through storytelling, reflective essays, poems, and background facts, students can use The Change Agent to learn about the history of 9/11, wrestle with important legal and moral questions related to security and liberty, and examine the “rule of law” in the context of terrorism. — Cynthia Peters

A student of mine put together a 9/11 tribute video on YouTube that other students, teachers & parents might be interested in viewing as we remember the tragic events of ten years ago: “United We Will Stand: a Tribute to the Fallen of September 11th, 2001.″ — Brett Malas

As a seventh grade science teacher I wanted to look at this tragedy from a different point of view. I created a power point first explaining the meaning of the day and what exactly happened, but then I continue with a more scientific explanation. With pictures and diagrams I plan to discuss what caused the towers to collapse and the structural significance. We will look at the history of the towers, how they were built and how eventually they were brought down, therefore allowing for an emotional and educational impact. I plan to share my power point with my entire department. — Susan Russo

This is the second year of a blogging community among four schools, and soon to be two international schools. We collaborated and decided to do something as a community to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We are compiling a message of hope, peace and remembrance written by our students. From their written words we are adding their voice and a visual element to connect all of the schools together for a final product.

Most of our students were so young when this happened, we want to impress upon them the changes in society, on many levels, that have been triggered by the events of 9/11. Showing relevance to their daily lives and passions will help them understand the impact caused by the tragic events.

We collaborated using Twitter, Google Docs, and Skype. I will share a link after the final project is done. We plan to share this with the schools as well as the world. — Shaelynn Farnsworth, Erin Olson, Shawn Hyer, Bev Berns, Todd Vogts

Ideas Using Writing, Literature, Theater and Fine Arts

I use my own blog post from the day (or pre-blog, I guess) as we were in our fourth day of school at one of the two high schools located directly south of the South Tower. I also had my students write immediately after the first plane hit . I had them type their pieces up and have those texts uploaded on my site as well.

Between the two, you have some pretty immediate writing you can utilize in your classroom. I am happy to provide you and any other teachers who could use them with URLs to the blogs, photos, and student reactions. — Heather Ordover

I’m a mom and work in a homeschool group of kids ranging in age from 7-15. We did a research writing unit and kids could choose between two topics, one of which was 9/11. The students who chose this had to complete factual research and then write a first person narrative story including the facts. The stories were extremely creative. One child put together a power point presentation with wonderful images that explored the feelings of her character in relation to different things that happened on that day. One person wrote a story about being twins that were born on 9/11 and traveled back in time to observe the experience. These twins had some super powers and were able to change the pattern of history. One student put together an ABC book with a variety of facts and emotions related to the event. Each student presented his/her information to the class. We then debriefed about the emotional content. It’s been one of the best homeschool group experiences we’ve had. — Jennifer Rouyer

I will be planning a lesson that coordinates with the anniversary of 9/11. My intended focus will be on designing a monument. I teach sculpture and Art 3D.

I hope to teach students about some of our country’s great national monuments through a slide show and question/answer session. Students will learn where the monuments are located, their purpose/meaning, and be asked to share if they have visited the monuments or have any other prior knowledge about them. Next a discussion will be had based on the prompt question, “What do you think the artist was thinking when they designed the monument?” I hope to have some peer discussion and then greater group discussion as well. After discussing design and purpose of the national monuments, we will start planning to build a 3D sculpture of a monument by starting with some free sketching to work out some ideas. After students have settled on design concepts, they will build their monuments (most likely in small groups of two-four). The materials used will vary from sculpting clay to cardboard to wire. I expect this lesson to take one-two weeks of class time, in 45-minute class periods. — Christine Todd

I teach 8th and 11th grade English students in Southwest Virginia. I’ve been teaching for four years. I admit that each year my 9/11 focus changes as a result of my annual tweaking but, I really like how last year’s 9/11 remembrance worked out. For the sake of space I will focus on my 11th grade students.

Each year in September, my 11th-grade students and I find ourselves in an American Literature introductory unit which includes our oral tradition. A few days before 9/11, I give my students a homework assignment to discuss with at least two people what they remember about 9/11. One has to be a family member and 1 other person (could be a friend or someone they know that is old enough to remember 9/11 or another family member).

The students are to take good notes and be prepared to share them on 9/11. Meanwhile in class we are still discussing the strengths of the oral tradition in handing down what the culture’s most important messages are for the next generation. We also discuss how often young people are the audience of these cultural stories so figurative language is used to help them visualize the messages the elders are trying to pass down.

During the week I will also be reading quotes from my own 9/11 family interviews to give my students an idea of the kind of notes I want them to be taking.

On 9/11 I will begin class by showing students one of the many 9/11 memorial videos on YouTube (after previewing them the night before) and then we spend just a couple of minutes discussing what the main message of the video was or the main focus; then we break into groups.

Student share their interviews with their group members. They are to take notes on what stands out as the main memory or main feeling or main message they get from all of the interviews they have heard and discussed. They decide as a group which message they think is the most important to pass down to the next generation.

The next day students get back into their groups and create a story map of a story they could tell in an oral tradition style that would teach one powerful message about 9/11 to the next generation. I suggest they use animals as characters to get away from any stereotyping that could occur in the making of the story and they should use figurative language. Each story needs a message or a moral but the story should stand on its own; no need to add “the moral of the story is…”

Last year we just stopped the lesson at the outline only and with the students sharing their ideas with classmates. I think this year I would like my students to finish their stories and create podcasts that my 8th grade class can then listen to and try to decide what the main messages of each of the stories are. Maybe I will have my juniors create voice threads so the 8th graders can easily comment on them and then they can go back and review.

I really look forward to the results this year. — Alicia Johnson

My students in AP English Language and Composition read Jonathan Safran Foer’s wonderful book “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” Our focus in this unit is postmodernism and postmodernist literature, and our standard is reading and writing in a specific genre. We watch clips from “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” and “Falling Man.” We look at reader response theory and how memories of an event transcend the actual physical “being there” in a community. We also talk about style, pairing the novel with the essay “On Ground Zero.” My students have been the protagonist’s age or older for the past five years, so I’m interested to see how my future students will react to an event they were too young to remember personally. — Wendy Turner

I have been teaching high school literature for 30 years and last year I had a magical experience teaching Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” to about 90 regular junior students at the suburban high school where I teach outside of Cleveland, Ohio. The text is especially relevant because it is being made into a movie that will be released in December, starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Due to its unusual format, the novel challenges students to use their reading skills in unique ways because it uses a non-linear sequential story line and also includes photographs, illustrations, and experimental typography, as well as offbeat humor with puns and wordplay. My students loved the book and I plan on teaching it again this year. — Linda Lackey

I realized my sophomore students this year were only in kindergarten when 9/11 occurred. (I was a freshman in college.) I wanted to acknowledge the 10-year anniversary in some way, and I decided to use poetry from Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry Web site/column.

My students will read, annotate, and discuss Stuart Kestenbaum’s “Prayer for the Dead” and Tony Gloeggler’s “Five Years Later.” — Jason Stephenson

You and your readers may be interested in my recent Huffington Post story on Ten Books About 9/11 to Share With Kids & Teens . — Rocco Staino

In the aftermath of 9/11, I had my students write a letter to Osama bin Laden. I saved the letters to use as primary sources with my future students. On the first anniversary, I had my students write as essay about their memories of 9/11. I saved the essays, too. Every year I have done a lesson remembering. I show a DVD of the news coverage of the event. Then I bring out the bin Laden letters and the memory essays. The students love to read the accounts from the students who were their age at the time. For several years now the middle school age students do not remember 9/11. For some it is the first they even heard of it. — Annette Duffy

As an English teacher, I have included “The Names” as part of my curriculum during September. This poem, written by Billy Collins, the Poet Laureate at the time, was read at the memorials that year. It is a poem, that no matter how many times I read it, has new meaning and is more moving. I highly recommend that English teachers check it out if they aren’t familiar. I have students draw an image from the poem, or select a part to respond to. — Becky Riley

A former Stuyvesant High School colleague of mine called me to share a discussion he has with his A.P. English literature students about the Billy Collins poem “The Names.” Here is a very brief description of his approach, in my words, not his:

We discuss how “The Names” is an occasional poem and falls within classical traditions and poetic modes, delving into these elements and devices, among many others: the elegiac mode, the use of Homeric dactylic hexameter, the hero and heroic death that recalls book two of “The Iliad,” classical epithets, anaphora, monody and phrenody, juxtaposition of pastoral and urban, tribute to democracy, list-making and name-reading. – Walter Gern

Ideas Using History and Humanities

I am an adjunct professor of philosophy at a SUNY community college. I teach 3 sections of Introduction to Philosophy. Each year, on the anniversary of 9/11, I devote my 50 minute classes to an exploration of the event from the perspective of human nature. The text I use for this course unfolds the history of Western philosophy through the lens of various theories on human nature. I carry over the human nature theme to our 9/11 inquiry.

These are some of the questions we explore: What did 9/11 tell us about our origins, nature, and destiny? What did 9/11 tells us about the human qualities of good and evil, love and hate, strength and weakness, kindness and cruelty, aggression and passivity, generosity and greed, courage and cowardice? How did 9/11 depict us as part angel, part demon, part rational, part animal, capable of great glory and great tragedy? What did 9/11 “say” about who we are? — Katherine FitzGerald

I worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant, alongside my mentor professor, teaching a political science class at the college level called 9/11: A Historical Review. Basically, our approach was to put 9/11 into historical context, with an emphasis on U.S. foreign policy and unforeseen consequences in the world: the Middle East and Central Asia. We reviewed the CIA funding of Osama bin Laden and the jihad in the 1980’s, the Iraqi Tilt policy of Gulf War I and U.S. support for Saddam Hussein, the Iran Contra Affair and more. We framed our semester with a few key questions, some of them being: How have past US policies affected our lives and the world today? Do the ends justify the means?

We discussed the nature of U.S. foreign policy, pre-9/11 – largely done in secret, without public or congressional debate. Because this secrecy fits the definition of conspiracy, we logically entertained all theories about the events of 9/11, and any inconsistencies or questions on which the students chose to focus their attention and research.

We used all forms of media and literature (independent and mainstream) to discover the information our students desired: documentaries such as “9/11 Press For Truth” and “Zero: An Investigation into 9/11,” and required readings, “The Terror Timeline” by Paul Thompson, and the 9/11 Report: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States . We discovered and discussed information from countless scholars, groups, sources and Web sites with volumes of information relating to 9/11, such as The Project for The New American Century , Dr. David Ray Griffin’s “The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions” and Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth .

We encouraged our students to be their own media by creating a YouTube video about any topic related to 9/11 as their final project. Most students focused their projects on the inconsistencies relating to 9/11, and many focused on the history – past U.S. foreign policies and what roles they might have played in the events of 9/11. Some students even conducted campus interviews, finding and showing an unfortunate abundance of common, often improperly, or not fully informed understandings of historic events. We taught this class three semesters in a row, and it was consistently the most popular and highly peer-recommended class within its particular program, which shows that even 10 years after the event, 9/11 continues to be a relevant and important scholarly topic. — Alissa

I taught social studies to grades 8-12, in a private school, for three years. One of the essential questions we looked at was, How was 9/11 exploited, for political purposes? Since the students were inundated with a textbook perspective that didn’t examine the erosion of civil liberties after 9/11, I sought to give the students a viewpoint that is more akin to Howard Zinn’s in “A People’s History of the United States.: We looked at how whistleblowers, 9/11 victims’ relatives, and other voices of dissent were marginalized. In post-9/11 Ameica, critical thinking about the government often was, and still is, characterized as denigrating the memories of those who died on that tragic day. 9/11 should not be used as a tool to indoctrinate students into blindly obeying the government. Fighting terrorism should never imply ignoring the Constitution. — Michael J. Berman

I was in eighth grade when the towers fell. I was in my classroom 19 blocks from the Twin Towers when the planes struck. I remember every detail of that day.

The school in which I was sitting at the time of the attack is a progressive K-8 school in Greenwich Village. Each year our homeroom curriculum focused on a particular subject and other disciplines found ways to incorporate that topic. In seventh grade my homeroom’s focus was the culture and belief system of Islam. I cannot express how grateful I am to have gained an un-biased perspective on Islamic tradition before the attacks. Because of my curriculum, even as a 13-year-old I was fully aware that this horrible event was perpetrated by a small, fanatical group of Muslims and that the community overall was peaceful and loving. I think that it is so important when teaching about 9/11 to emphasize that the people behind the attacks do no represent the Islamic community as a whole. Making an effort to do so is required to prevent prejudice from developing in young and impressionable minds. — Sarah Philips

In my eighth grade U.S. history class, we debate the merits of having a 9/11 national holiday through a 3-corner debate. We look at a few opposing views on why 9/11 should, or should not be addressed in classrooms and then I write the statement on the board, “9/11 should be deemed a national holiday by the U.S. Congress.” Students take a stand in one of three corners of the classroom 1) Strongly Agree 2) Somewhat Agree/Somewhat Disagree 3) Strongly Disagree. One student at a time from each group then has a chance to try to convince students from the other corners of the classroom to move to their corner. To conclude, we discuss who had the strongest argument and why. This is only a one-day, 50-minute lesson. It sparks great debate over the ways we really want to remember the 9/11 tragedy. — Jill DiCuffa

I drew a lot of comfort from re-reading the details of the Blitz of London, and realizing that if London recovered from months of nightly bombings, NYC and the US would recover from the events of that morning.

Students should always be taught how the people of NYC, Washington and the rest of the US resolved to move beyond the unimaginable, how the world banded together to support us, and how the heroes of that day and the ones that followed turned the story of 9/11 into one about the bravery and devotion to duty that our people can show. It will serve them well when drawing connections and relationships from 9/11 to unimaginable events that occur in their adulthood. — Mark Moran

Pam Moran and Ira Socol , who wrote the guest post Teaching 9/11 | Why? How? , also shared four project ideas with us. Here are descriptions of their projects (they are fleshed out on Mr. Socol’s blog, SpeEdChange ):

• Localizing history – Examining “big events” in the history of the community where your school is located, focusing on how the stories about those events are shared and how they have changed, commemorative gestures like memorials or plaques and groups that play a role in keeping the history of the event alive. In groups, students conduct interviews and visit local sites in addition to conducting research.
• Considering how history is created – Considering and investigating comparisons of other significant events to those of Sept. 11, 2001 by generating research questions related to how various groups in the United States remember those events differently and how those differences affect political and personal decisions. Groups of students then search for primary sources and images, including global news sources like The New York Times.
• Considering iconic absence – How does a place deal with the loss of a landmark? Why might it be important to many New Yorkers to have the ground zero site rebuilt with tall towers? What landmarks define where you live? Have any local landmarks been lost? Students search local history to find lost landmarks and photograph the locations where they once existed. How did locals feel when these landmarks were lost? Students can create QR codes to tag locations in their community, leading users to images of landmark views of the past or to interviews with those who remember the landmark, or to stories about the landmark.
• Reflecting on knowledge of history – What do American students know about U.S. and global history? What do students around the world know about their own country’s history and about world history? Does emphasizing certain historic events in curriculum affect how a nation behaves in the world? Students investigate various incidents and how it is taught and recalled.

– Pam Moran and Ira Socol

Ideas for Younger Students

I teach 7th and 8th grade English in a rural northwest Ohio school district. I use two picture books to teach about 9/11. Students fold a 8-1/2″ x 11″ piece of paper into fourths and we use both sides. I stop three times throughout the books and have students write to a prompt for each “box”: a connection, vocabulary word, a prediction, etc. and the fourth box is always a drawing. The two books I use are “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” by Mordicai Gerstein and “Fireboat” by Maira Kalman . Our social studies teacher shows the junior high students a DVD she made of images from 9/11 set to music. — Erika Snyder

In the past I have asked my 8th grade students to interview a family member about their memories of where they were, and the impact the day had on them. The students then have the opportunity to share with the class if they choose. In addition, because it is the 10th anniversary, I plan to create a gallery of images posted on big paper where students may silently post, in writing, their responses to each image. — Karen Dorr

My students were not yet born in 2001, and many of them have never been to New York, or even the United States. Most have very little background knowledge about 9/11.

Every year on Sept. 11th, I read “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers,” by Mordicai Gernstein, to my students. I’ve read this book to students from first grade to fifth grade. They are drawn in by the true story of Philippe Petit, and the book is a powerful vehicle for introducing this topic. The book leads naturally to generating questions and discussion. I highly recommend it for elementary classrooms. — Greg Feezell

My fourth graders and I are interviewing the adults in our building to ask them this question: “How has your faith been strengthened or your relationship with God changed?” I teach at a Catholic school and we are focusing on the good that came out of 9/11.

After the interviews, each student will create or locate an image to accompany the words. We will then put the voice and image to music as a multimedia presentation to share with our school and our parent community. — Renee Streicher

I haven’t yet decided how I will address this because I have to have a sense of my new students first — as this is history to them I need to know if they have personal connections or if it is remote to them. Being a New Yorker it is a difficult anniversary for me, but not necessarily for them and I want to keep that in mind as I consider what they need not what I need.

I am considering reading aloud and discussing a new picture book, “America Is Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day the Towers Fell” by Don Brown, which will publish on Aug. 16. — Monica Edinger

Carmen Agra Deedy’s picture book “14 Cows for America” tells the true story of an African medical student, his Masai village and the generous gift they wish to present to America after 9/11. It’s a great jumping off point! — Susan Robie

We have taught about 9/11 in our elementary school, with age-appropriate material since it occurred. we not only have a word of silence, read stories,sing songs, write poems, draw pictures, express feelings, but we have established a 9/11 Memorial Perennial Garden that the students work in and have lessons in. This year in commemoration of the 10th anniversary, we will be holding a special assembly, where the students will express their feelings in song, poems,etc and will rededicate our garden. The garden serves a twofold purpose: to never forget those lost on that day while serving as promise for the future to strive for peace. Every school throughout the nation should have 9/11 curriculum in place. I am currently on a quest to write curriculum particularly for the elementary school age child. This should never be forgotten and is a piece of history every child in America should know about. — Susan

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The school in which I was sitting at the time of the attack is a progressive K-8 school in Greenwich Village. Each year our homeroom curriculum focused on a particular subject and other disciplines found ways to incorporate that topic. In seventh grade my homeroom’s focus was the culture and belief system of Islam. I cannot express how grateful I am to have gained an un-bias perspective on Islamic tradition before the attacks. Because of my curriculum, even as a 13-year-old I was fully aware that this horrible event was perpetrated by a small, fanatical group of Muslims and that the community overall was peaceful and loving.

I think that it is so important when teaching about 9/11 to emphasize that the people behind the attacks do no represent the Islamic community as a whole. Making an effort to do so is required to prevent prejudice from developing in young and impressionable minds.

We had three young children and were moving into our house in New Jersey, miles from lower Manhatten, after repatriating from Hong Kong, that fateful day. The crisp and clear autumn day was shattered and broken by 9am. At the time, with young children, we shielded them as much as we could. Not wanting them to become fearful or hysterical, we did not watch alot of TV in their presence, as the days events continued to unfold. The horror was felt by the world, we chose to minimize its acknowledgment in our home. That said, the children are grown up now enough that we have obviously shared with them the travesty and sadness that occurred 10 years ago. They now understand it the best they can for each of their ages. They know people who lost someone that day. They don’t understand hatred, thankfully. But then again, they didn’t lose a close family member.

I do teach about 911. I teach Middle School students. In the aftermath of 911, I had my students write a letter to Bin Laden. I saved the letters to use as primary sources with my future students. On the first anniversary, I had my students write as essay about their memories of 911. I saved the essays, too. Every year I have done a lesson remembering….I show a dvd of the news coverage of the event. Than I bring out the Bin Laden letters and the memory essays! The students love to read the accounts from the students who were their age at the time. For several years now the middle school age students do not remember 911. For some it is the first they even heard of it.

As an English teacher, I have included “The Names” as part of my curriculum during September. This poem, written by Billy Collins, the Poet Laureate at the time, was read at the memorials that year. It is a poem, that no matter how many times I read it, has new meaning and is more moving. I highly recommend that English teachers check it out if they aren’t familiar. I have students draw an image from the poem, or select a part to respond to.

It seems incredible that almost nothing is included in these teaching strategies regarding the reasons for the attacks, virtually nothing examining the motivations of the attackers. Can it be that we Americans are so ignorant that we are satisfied with deceptive explanations ascribing a hatred of liberty as the reason? Or even more idiotic, a willingness to accept the simplistic lable “terrorist” as sufficient analysis? Almost everything I’ve read has focused on what happened, but there has been very little explanation regarding the reasons why these events occured. Examining the motivations and exploring the reasons we were and are the targets for such extreme hatred may be less dramatic than contemplating burning buildings, but doing so is infinitely more important. I suppose it should not be all that surprising. How many of us can provide an accurate description of Japan’s reasons for attacking Pearl Harbor? The simplistic claim that Japan sought to dominate the Pacific is remarkably inadequate.

Two years ago I was moved into a 7th grade English position. I was shocked and amazed that my students did not know ANYTHING about 9/11. They were five at the time. I brought Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” into class. I read the lyrics of a couple of the song to them and ask “What do think the poet was trying to say to the reader”. I then explained who Mr. Springsteen is and where he is from. I then play the songs and again ask “What message is here in the music?” I tell them the story of myself as a child when President Kennedy was shot and how school was closed and how I saw on TV the man accused of killing him was killed. I tell them who I was with and all the events that I can remember. I tell them of the time when I woke up one morning to have my father tell me that someone had shot Robert Kennedy, then I tell them about the night TV was interrupted to tell the world that Dr. King’s life had been taken. Each experience, I am able to tell them in full details where I was and everyone that was in the room, the looks on the faces the tears that were shed. I tell them that there will be times in their lives that they will remember everything related to that event, where they were, who they were with, and sadly the event itself. I then explained what occurred on 9/11 and all the memories that I have from that day. I show pictures of newspapers, I pull up videos and then I play the songs again and ask if they can find any relation now in the music/poems. I then give them an assignment to ask their parents where they were when 9/11 occurred. They are to write down details paying more attention to what their parents felt more than locations. The reason that I want them to pay attention to the feelings comes back into poems and the feelings needed to really write good poems. We share the papers in class and then we attempt to write poems of what we think our parents felt.

To address Mr. Marcinski’s post, later in the year the social studies teacher does a great job about why the attacks occurred using a book called “Understanding September 11th” by Mitch Frank.

The St John’s University students in my “Creating Theater,” “Acting” & “Core Speech” all wrote about their impressions of the 9/11 incixdent & its aftermath. St John’s University is an international University with campuses all over teh world. In my theater classes we consider technology’s impact on the way we recive information & witha Vincentian approach we consider how any of us might be helpful. My SOS Theater Proect as part of th3 101 Murray Street Think Tank considers the implications of 9/11 as altering the course of history. We compse “useful” theater, bothe poetic & Brechtian or Piscatorian. In my classes are students from Tibet, Iran, Israel, Portugal, Japan, China, Puerta Rico, Guyana. everywhere! There is always compelling & engaging theater arts created by this diverse population. At saval space rwm playwrights lab & professional actors in the hem theater collective side coach & “spot” the younger dramatic arts kids. As professional playwright I wrote “Utopia Rescheduled which has been done about 7 times. Writing is rewriting so there are new monologues added. My studenst also participated in the mosque situation’ firsta hand as it was 2 blocks away. We did an on site tableau vivnat & morality/miracle play. The St John’s Red Stormer s rreminded that theater was reborn in teh Church after the Drak Ages. We face a new Dark Ages & economic crisis. A theater of ideas — areal Grek ‘agobn’ (debate) can happen in a fine Catholic university & in an incluisve, cross-cultural, multi-faith theater think tank. We discover Theater arts & we invent defying the old conventions — the ver-misinterpreted Aristotelian Poetics– as prescriptive not descriptive. History turns ona dime; the concept of performances must be fluid mirroring nature — which is quite stormy lately! TA new theater arises in ACtolic colleges, cafes & the Church! Avanti as Tennessee Williams often told me the last 7 years of his life.

Since 2001 I have shown the documentary 9/11 by Jules & Gedeon Gaudat the week before 9/11. Then I share a personal story. My (at the time volunteer firefighter) son was the managing editor of his college (Kilgore, Texas) newspaper and wrote an anniversary column about ‘the angel in his pocket’–a medallion that made its way from a NYFD firefighter to Josh.

In the spring of 2003 I attended CSPA taking copies of my son’s column with me. I made a pilgrimage to three fire stations. Amazing things happened including the gift of a shirt, and multiple autographs from New York firefighters, police and Port Authority officials on a copy of his column. When I got home I got it framed with mementos and gave it to him for his birthday in April.

The next year I took Josh with me to CSPA and he met many of the firefighters who had signed his column (it was actually on a bulletin board) in one firehouse & they invited him to hang out with them on the night tour.

I show photos and tell this story and the stories of the men who took the time to share with me. Then my students (sophomores-seniors) write letters of appreciation to our local first responders. I make three sets of copies–one to EMTs, one to the volunteer fire department and one to the police. We also deliver cakes that say: WOHS (White Oak High School) loves Hometown Heroes! After this I show them a film that traces the roots of terrorism historically and we discuss what we have learned and they journal their reactions along the way.

This year, because of the fires that surround our community we are having a gatorade/bottled water drive to distribute to our first responders fighting the ferocious fires in terrible heat.

Even as I write this my son is fighting a wildfire in East Texas that has consumed 38 square miles so for. He graduated with a degree in forestry, minor in journalism and a specialization in Wildland Firefighting. And that brings us full circle…it all began with 9/11.

As I write I want to commend all the teachers out there who teach about 9/11. I have been a little shocked to hear that it is oftentimes not covered in history classes in many states. It is a hard topic to approach, and children may encounter a lot of emotional and otherwise delicate material when studying the day that changed America and the World. The very worst of humankind was shown on that day, but then… heroes appeared, and the very best of human qualities also appeared. I feel this is one of the best ways to approach this delicate topic and event for the younger learners: covering what happened and also focusing on the uplifting qualities, the heroes of 9/11 and its aftermath, heroes from all walks of life.

I found these resources from EDSITEment //edsitement.neh.gov/ that guide teachers and students in an exploration of the September 11 Memorial website, and its resources to study what happened on that day, who helped (Heroes of 9/11 and its aftermath) and how to pay tribute. The resources include worksheets, activities, visuals and a detailed guided exploration of the museum’s website. I’d like to recommend it to parents, teachers, students, or anybody wanting to learn more or teach about 9/11 and its aftermath.

National 9/11 Memorial, //edsitement.neh.gov/websites/national-september-11-memorial

EDSITEment Student Launchpad on 9/11, //edsitement.neh.gov/launchpad-guided-exploration-events-911#node-21825

Teacher’s Guide on Teaching 9/11, //edsitement.neh.gov/virtual-visit-national-september-11-memorial-and-museum

This would be great for everyone if schools are planning on teaching or incorporating this historic moment into an instructional learning environment. I believe it must be done from a biblical perspective. If not, we as a whole will be doing an injustice to those who have lost their love ones on that day. This tragic event should be taught with an open mind to engage all minds. Unity, Love, and Peace!!!!

I think 9/11 is really interesting and I want teachers to teach more about it.

Teachers Involved: Shaelynn Farnsworth, Erin Olson, Shawn Hyer, Bev Berns, and Todd Vogts This is the second year of a blogging community between 4 schools, and soon to be 2 International schools. We collaborated and decided to do something as a community to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. We are compiling a message of Hope, Peace, and Remembrance written by our students. From their written words we are adding their voice and a visual element to connect all of the schools together for a final product! Most of our students were so young when this happened, we want to impress upon them the changes in society, on many levels, that have been triggered by the events of 9/11. Showing relevance to their daily lives and passions will help them understand the impact caused by the tragic events. We collaborated using twitter, google docs, and skype. I will share a link after the final project is done! We plan to share this with the schools as well as the world!

9/11 is not taught at our school. However, I believe it would be beneficial to students, especially the ones who did not witness the tragedy. It is mentioned in the news constantly, and it would benefit the students if they could fully comprehend what happened on that day.

Not sure why, but this has just finally got to me.

Having a tough time ‘teaching’ through the 10th anniversary. Difficult discussion today when my students explained they were in first or second grade during the 9/11 attacks. Their perspective is completely valid, understandable, authentic, and so hard for me to take. For me, it was yesterday; for them, a lifetime ago. Their most resonant memory? “we couldn’t go to recess” and “the teacher was crying and it made us worried.”

Mine? I remember thinking how ugly the buildings were, and how impressive the lobby and the sky lobby is. Was.

I have no words for my students. And let’s be honest, I have words for everyone, and everything.

My grandfather, a marine, enlisted after the Pearl Harbor attack. I was out of the US Navy in 1989 long before 2001.

The world, changed. My students will never remember the days before 9/11/2001; they didn’t know the world I did, so maybe they don’t miss it.

Suddenly, this week, I understand the look in my grandfather’s eyes when he would talk, very very seldomly, about the Pearl Harbor attack, and what it meant.

So, tomorrow? We’ll get out the second edition of the school year (on day 14 of the school year- proud of my kids). We’ll talk about the history of photography, and in the evening I’ll shoot the JV and Varsity football game under the lights, and on Sunday I will do my best to… to do my best. I’ll distract myself with grad school, take the dogs for a run on the beach (they run, I walk), gather together with friends, and try to be a grown up and take care of myself.

I have no plans for the classroom and 9/11. I have no plans for how to make the day more real for these kids; maybe I hope the day doesn’t have to be real for them; maybe I hope they can be just a naive as I was on September 10, 2001. Maybe my hope for them is that, when the world changes in an instant, they are more prepared than I was, or then I am.

Hats off to the best of us who will wade through it all again tomorrow; find meaning, teach lessons, add context, layer emotion. Lessons planned, images ready, discussion questions written on the board. I wish, I do, I could join you tomorrow. I’ll be the one, remembering students who enlisted and won’t be returning (you’ll remember them too), and holding back the tears.

Or failing that, the one who explains what the tears mean, providing my students with another day where the teacher was crying, and it made us worried.

Thought you would appreciate this 9/11 volunteerism project…

//www.edmestoncentralschool.net/uploads/jchase/911mediaprojects.htm

Great post!

wel u can do a exbit project that the whole class can do i would be really fun

I’m the author of a middle-school book that will come out next week (Sept. 2, 2014) pertaining to September 11. Set in Florida, JUST A DROP OF WATER, tells the story of two thirteen-year-old boys and how their friendship is tested in the wake of September 11. As a former history teacher, I want kids to not only experience that tragic day through Jake and Sam, but explore the why of it all. How did this happen? Why? How can we prevent it from happening again. I have many discussion questions and extension activities posted on my website, as well, and three school locally have already picked the book up to use in the classroom. I hope you find this information useful. Kirkus gave the book a great review saying, “…just the supplemental material middle-grade teachers are looking for.” //www.kerryomalleycerra.com

Here’s how I approached the topic with my fifth graders last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbVyw5MWNfI

What's Next

Heroism on 9/11 inspires essay writers to share how they’ve coped with COVID

• Published: Sep. 10, 2021, 11:00 a.m.

• Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Philip Quattrochi of Monmouth Beach wasn’t born yet when his father Stephen made the perilous journey to safety from his office on the 60th floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But 20 years later, his 17-year-old son was inspired by his father’s experience surviving the attack to write an essay based on the story of Susan Baer, the Port Authority’s trailblazing first female director of aviation , and lessons about how she coped with 9/11 and the days after.

Baer’s story is one of many in the 2006 book, “Reclaiming the Skies ,” about how airline and aviation professionals coped with the shut down of air travel on 9/11, resuming flights and rebuilding after the attacks.

The first ever essay contest was organized by Tom Murphy, “Reclaiming the Sky” author and the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University, which he founded. It was open to students, aviation and airport professionals.

Essay writers selected the person’s story from the book that inspired them the most. Several selected Baer and related how her story helped them cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

On 9/11, Baer was in charge of Newark Liberty International Airport and coped with the immediate shut down of air travel across the nation, closing the airport, accommodating thousands of travelers and restarting operations, amid the backdrop of losing friends and colleagues in the collapse of the World Trade Center.

The book and essay contest name came from Baer’s philosophy of building back after 9/11, Murphy said.

“The theme of reclaiming the sky and moving forward by doing for others comes from Sue Baer,” he said. “She was all about service.”

A senior at Shore Regional High School , Phillip Quattrochi said he is considering a career in aviation engineering.

“I was very interested due to my father’s involvement in the Twin Towers. I wanted to get involved,” Quattrochi said. “Her (Baer’s) leadership during, after and around the attacks was nothing like I’ve seen before.”

He learned of the essay contest from his former elementary school teacher Kathy Decker, when he was fixing her computer. She heads a group of retired United Airlines flight attendants.

His father Stephen worked in Tower 2 at the Twin Towers for Morgan-Stanley for eight years, starting in July 1993, months after the first terrorist bombing in a WTC parking garage.

“I heard the explosion in Tower 1 and ran to the window and yelled out to everyone, ‘get out of the building.’ My fear was the other building would was going to topple over on us,” he recalled. “Obviously I had no idea another plane was going to hit.”

He and several co-workers started down the stairs and felt the building shudder when they reached the 30th floor.

“Our building swayed one way for what seemed like an eternity. I said to the other three people I worked with, ‘that’s it, we’re done.’ We thought that was it,” he said. “Thank God, we made it out.”

A Colts Neck volunteer firefighter for 15 years at that time, Quattrochi said it felt strange to go from running into a dangerous situation to trying to get out of one.

“When I saw the building fall, the first thing I thought of was all the emergency services people that lost their lives,” he said. “It was a scary day.”

The news of his son’s placement in the essay contest was a complete surprise.

“I was excited to hear he was interested in following up, 20 years later, and doing an essay about this event,” he said “It really hit home. I felt really proud of him.”

The purpose of the essay contest is to keep the memories of 9/11 alive and to learn from the stories of resiliency from aviation professionals who were on the job that day, Murphy said.

“‘Never Forget’ needs to be an action statement, because if it’s not backed up by action and programs such as this, it can become just a slogan,” Murphy said after the ceremony. “The way we keep the memories of the heroes alive is to let young people of this generation have access to those stories and give them a chance to apply those lessons to meet challenges in their lives.”

Several of the essay winners wrote that coping with and helping others during the coronavirus pandemic is a challenge that the 9/11 stories helped them deal with.

Student essay winner Christopher Matteo of Farmingdale State College wrote about his 9/11 moment, announcing to a crowd of students at an event that the campus was closing indefinitely due to COVID-19.

“I drew a lot of inspiration from Sue Baer’s leadership. She was able to act like a compass...guiding others through the storm and helping them stay the course,” he wrote. “I used her core belief of soldiering on and helping others to overcome the many challenges of the pandemic.”

His grandmother died from COVID-19, and he lost two internships when the country locked down. He hosted virtual events for other aviation students and through one of those connections, obtained an airport management internship during the summer.

The airline essay winner recalled her experience as a 12-year-old student on a school bus traveling to class in Manhattan past the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11, before the attacks.

When asked by her mother if she wanted to return to that school after 9/11, Giovanna DiBernardo, an Alaska Airlines customer service agent at Newark airport, wrote that she said “yes, I would not give in to the fear” and “never let those terrorists ruin my last year.”

Those lessons, she wrote, are just as applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she employed them to help anxious travelers.

The first annual essay contest was a concept to commentate the 20th anniversary.

“A kid like Philip wasn’t born on 9/11. This is giving them access,” Murphy said.

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None of My Students Remember 9/11

For coming generations of students, September 11 is history rather than memory. How does that affect how they learn about it?

T his fall marks the 21st year I will be teaching college students about the September 11 terrorist attacks. It used to be that 9/11 was a trauma shared by everyone. Now it is a day that no one in my classroom but me remembers.

Educating successive generations of teenagers about the intelligence failures that led to that day has been a strange and surprising journey. At first, I struggled to find ways to take the emotion out of my teaching—to bring logical reasoning, historical perspective, and careful analysis to a moment that seemed to defy all of those things. Now I struggle to put the emotion back in, helping students who weren’t yet born when al-Qaeda terrorists attacked our nation understand the visceral context and swirling uncertainties that intelligence officials and policy makers faced.

I started teaching about 9/11 on 9/11 . At the time, I was a newly minted public-policy professor at UCLA writing a book about how American national-security agencies were adapting to the end of the Cold War. The World Trade Center towers collapsed between 7 and 7:30 a.m. in California. I watched the news live on television as I fed my toddlers breakfast. After shuffling my kids away from the TV screen and sobbing in my husband’s arms, I got into my car and drove to campus.

Colleagues and I decided to hold an impromptu seminar. The lecture hall was soon overflowing, with students, staff, and faculty sitting on the floor and crammed in the aisles, some of them crying. It was hot; the air was stifling. The room had wood-paneled desks and walls that made it feel like a Cold War bunker. I remember thinking how it seemed so out-of-date, a hallmark of false protection in a terrifying new world.

I didn’t have answers that day about why American intelligence agencies couldn’t stop al-Qaeda. It was far too soon to know what had gone so wrong, and why; the search for answers would end up driving my academic research for the next decade. But I had questions, and history—I had studied surprise attacks and past intelligence failures. Together, my colleagues and I did the only thing we knew how: We tried to make sense of the world, to begin searching for explanations for something that seemed inexplicable.

Read: What Bobby McIlvaine left behind

In that awful room on that awful day, my students taught me a lesson that’s lasted a lifetime: Learning is an act of community. My students weren’t looking for answers. Just being together, grappling together, inquiring together to find some small way through our collective grief, was enough.

F or many years after 9/11 , students came to my class with powerful feelings and personal experiences. One had escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan. Another had enlisted in the Army after 9/11, serving in Iraq before attending college. When I casually asked on the first day of class that year why students were taking my course, his hand shot up. “I want to know why my buddy died in Iraq,” he said. “I want to know why I was there.”

Then, students sought certainties; I pressed them to see complexities. I assigned my own research alongside an article that argued I was completely wrong, so that they could see how even experts armed with logic and facts could disagree about root causes—and how engaging contending points of view could make their own understanding richer.

I also wanted them to see how hindsight prevents us from realizing how little intelligence officers and politicians understood in the moment. In one exercise, I divided the class into CIA analysts and policy makers. They all read the same declassified intelligence report—the now-infamous August 6, 2001, edition of the President’s Daily Brief, which highlighted Osama bin Laden’s ambitions but also included outdated and wrong intelligence, omitted vital clues that the CIA and FBI had about the 9/11 plot but never put together, and gave the impression that the FBI had everything under control.

Read: The 9/11 era is over

Was this a warning that wasn’t sufficiently heeded, or a warning that wasn’t sufficiently warning? And why? Each group of students had to make the strongest case for its view. Walking in the shoes of others, I hoped, would help them understand that reality is much more complicated than we think. Each group tended to see the same document very differently. That report wasn’t a smoking gun. It was a Rorschach test.

N ow I’m at Stanford, and I have the opposite problem: Instead of taking the emotion out of 9/11, I am trying to find ways to put the emotion back in.

My students see 9/11 as long-gone history , a kind of black-and-white reel of events that happened long ago, alongside the Cold War and the Peloponnesian War. The distance of time has benefits, but one drawback is that the human element of policy making gets lost. In political science, we treat policy as a Spock-like process of rational decision making in which leaders choose what to do based on a careful, dispassionate analysis of options, costs, and benefits. But real life doesn’t work that way.

On 9/11, the president and his advisers were hustled onto Air Force One and into underground emergency bunkers, fearing for their families, agonizing over the deaths of their fellow Americans, tracking the locations of airplanes on paper, and wondering when the next wave of attacks would come.

Policy makers are humans, not robots, and we need to better understand how real people under real stress make difficult and consequential decisions as best they can, and what can help them do better when the next crisis arrives.

My current students didn’t experience 9/11, but with the help of video, they can get a better sense of what that day was like. In class, I use archival footage of the attacks unfolding in real time to show the planes hitting, the towers crumbling, New Yorkers covered in dust evacuating the city, newscasters horrified, the Pentagon smoking. They aren’t required to watch—even now, it’s hard for me to see those images and hear those sounds again—but nearly all of them do. When the lights come on, many are visibly upset. That’s when the assignment begins. “You’re all members of the National Security Council staff,” I tell them. “You’ve just lived through this day. Your job is to figure out what the U.S. should do. How will you think about it? What are our options? What do you know; what don’t you know? What will you do next? And how do you feel?”

I doubt that many of my students over the past 20 years remember much about the books I’ve written or the lectures I’ve given. But I hope they remember that foreign policy is far more complex and challenging than pundits often claim, that analysis and emotion both play important roles, that you gain more insight from rigorous debate than comfortable agreement, and that learning is an act of community.

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How to Help Your Students Observe the 9/11 Anniversary

There are numerous online resources available for teaching about 9/11.

Whether it's with a moment of silence or an outpouring of service, schools across the country are considering how to help their students observe the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A wide range of resources are available to assist educators as they seek learning opportunities around this emotion-charged date.

Build Resilience

Media coverage of the anniversary is certain to be intense, including graphic images of the terror attacks and interviews with survivors. Most of today's students are too young to remember the day the Twin Towers fell, but coverage may nonetheless trigger fear, grief, anxiety, and other strong reactions. The National Association of School Psychologists recommends reinforcing children's natural resilience, and helping them "to see themselves as a positive force in their world, even in the face of adversity." NASP has produced a series of 9/11 discussion guides (in English in Spanish) for teachers and parents.

Explore Artifacts

9/11 Memorial website of the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center, provides information and multimedia resources for understanding the events of 2001. A section of the site specifically for educators suggests that students may be considering difficult questions as the anniversary approaches, such as, "Why would someone do this?" Or, "What does this mean for me?" To help students make their own sense of history, 9/11 Memorial provides access to artifacts. Exploring the collection of the collection of post-9/11 tributes , for example, might inspire new student projects for the 10th anniversary.

Learn through Stories

Learning through stories of personal transformation is the theme of the educational toolkit produced by the World Trade Center Tribute Site. Video portraits introduce eight individuals whose lives were forever changed by 9/11. Ada Dolch, for example, was principal of a high school a block from the World Trade Center. She helped to establish a school in Afghanistan to honor her sister, who was killed in the attacks. The educator toolkit offers information on how students can gather oral histories. It also links to a global collaboration project, "Breaking Stereotypes," hosted by iEARN.

Write to Learn

Rethinking Schools produced an award-winning special report in the aftermath of 9/11 called War, Terrorism and Our Classrooms . The contents continue to offer a rich repository of writing prompts and teaching strategies. For example, an essay by the late naturalist Steven Jay Gould explained a theory he called "the Great Asymmetry," in which "every spectacular incident of evil will be balanced by 10,000 acts of kindness, too often unnoted and invisible as the 'ordinary' efforts of a vast majority." Students might respond to his essay by drawing their own version of what Gould called a "web of bustling goodness," or writing stories that document examples of human compassion in their communities.

Consider How We Remember

A day after the terror attacks, the American Folklife Center marshaled the nation's folklorists to document America's reaction. The outpouring of songs, pictures, and words by Americans of all ages has been catalogued in a collection called the September 11, 2001, Documentary Project, archived by the Library of Congress American Memory project . The collection, available online, could be the springboard for student projects that make use of historical artifacts for inquiry in social studies, writing, art, music, or interdisciplinary studies.

Learn through Service

September 11 has been memorialized as a National Day of Service and Remembrance. Service events to honor the tenth anniversary are taking place in communities across the country, and more than a million Americans are expected to take part in projects ranging from food drives to neighborhood cleanups. United We Serve offers an online search for service opportunities by ZIP code. Toolkits are available to help you plan your own community service project.

Use the News

Exploring how news organization tell the story of 9/11 -- a decade ago or today -- can help students deepen their media literacy skills and learn why the news has been called the first draft of history. Resources to help students think more critically about the news include:

• The Learning Network of The New York Times : Teacher-friendly blog is updated daily with educational resources and lesson ideas based on articles, photos, podcasts, and more materials published in The New York Times. In this post on teaching about 9/11 , teachers weigh in with comments about their upcoming classroom plans. Teachers are also encouraged to submit posts about how they use the news for learning.
• Newseum : This media museum based in Washington, DC, offers online resources, such as newspaper front pages from around the world .
• Newspaper Map : This interactive map allows you to find and translate newspapers from 10,000 sites around the world.
• Newsmap : This site shows how world headlines are trending in real time across several categories.
• Media Literacy Skills: Interpreting Tragedy (PDF download) : Available for download from the National Council for the Social Studies, this publication by media literacy expert Renee Hobbs explains why it's important for students to think critically and also create their own content in response to events.

Today's students have grown up with social networks that weren't yet invented in 2001. Facebook didn't start until 2004; Twitter didn't launch until 2006. Help your students think about how these platforms have changed the way that information travels. Where do students turn first for information? How do they decide what's "true" when they hear about breaking events? How might they contribute their own stories or photos as citizen journalists?

Share Your Ideas

How will you observe the 10th anniversary with your students? Please share your stories and ideas for learning.

9/11 Is History Now. Here’s How American Kids Are Learning About It in Class

O n the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Lauren Hetrick was a 16-year-old sophomore at Hershey High School in Hershey, Pa. Her French class was just about to start when a strange announcement came over the P.A. system: “Attention, teachers: The computer tech is in the building.”

The teacher, hearing those words, logged onto her computer. Then she started to cry. She turned on the TV, and there was the North Tower at the World Trade Center, in flames. The class watched as a second plane hit the South Tower. Then the students watched the collapse of the tallest buildings in New York City.

Nearly two decades later, Hetrick has cause to see her teacher’s behavior that morning through a slightly different lens: She became a high school teacher herself, so helping students understand the events of 9/11 is part of her job too. This generation of students were almost all born after that defining 21st century moment, so while the attack may seem like yesterday to those old enough to remember it, to Hetrick’s students, it’s history.

Many teachers who remember what it was like to have been in school at that time use the memory to help their students connect to the topic. Hetrick, who chairs her school’s Social Studies department in Newville, Pa., shows her students the same Today show episode she watched that day. She also encourages them to listen to the stories of victims’ families and first responders recorded by StoryCorps, in hopes the personal recollections will make students more engaged “by seeing I’m truly invested in what we’re doing, seeing how much I’m caring about this, how emotional I get.”

When she first started teaching U.S. History in 2008, that lesson felt like déjà vu.

“I was teaching sophomores about my experience as a sophomore, and I would go home after that lesson and just break down,” she recalls. “I was having a hard time detaching. [Teachers] want to form a connection, but we also need to stay professional as historians and have that little bit of detachment. It’s definitely not easy to do.”

What Must Be Learned

It’s not surprising that teaching 9/11 as history is a delicate task. In addition to the emotional burden that falls on teachers who remember that day, the subject matter is sensitive and the images and documents that might be used as primary sources are disturbing. The story is also very much still being written, as the effects of 9/11 on American society continue to evolve.

There is also no national guideline that states are required to follow in terms of teaching the topic, so lessons will vary depending on the teacher or school district. In New York, for example, schools will observe a moment of silence on Wednesday, after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law on Monday requiring observation of the anniversary. A 2017 analysis of state high-school social-studies academic standards in the 50 states and the District of Columbia noted that 26 specifically mentioned the 9/11 attacks, nine mentioned terrorism or the war on terror, and 16 didn’t mention 9/11 or terrorism-related examples at all.

That variation is part of the reason why Jeremy Stoddard, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, set out to analyze how teachers are talking about 9/11 in classrooms nationwide.

A new study released this month, on which Stoddard is the lead author, polled 1,047 U.S. middle- and high-school teachers and revealed that the most popular method of teaching about 9/11 and the War on Terror was showing a documentary or “similar video.” The next most cited method was discussing related current events. The third most mentioned approach was sharing personal stories, the way Hetrick does; Stoddard says younger teachers in particular tend to aim to get kids “to feel like they felt that day, to understand the shock and horror people felt that day.”

The survey built on his prior research looking at textbooks and classroom resources developed to teach about the event in the first few years after 2001. He and UW-Madison colleague Diana Hess studied nine of the bestselling high school U.S History, World History, Government and Law textbooks published in 2004 and 2006, and then did side-by-side comparisons between three of them and editions published in 2009 and 2010, noting how descriptions of the attacks evolved.

For example, four of the nine earlier textbooks mentioned the war in Iraq as part of the aftermath of 9/11, but when Stoddard and Hess were doing research in 2005, only one, McDougal Littell’s The Americans (2005), got into how evidence for the weapons of mass destruction claims had not yet been found. One 2005 textbook, Prentice Hall’s Magruder’s American Government, said that when Congress authorized President George W. Bush to take whatever measures were “necessary and appropriate” to neutralize the threat of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the wake of 9/11, “it was widely believed that the regime had amassed huge stores of chemical and biological weapons”; the 2010 edition deleted the sentence about weapons of mass destruction. In some textbooks, the descriptions of the attacks got shorter as time went on. For example, that 2005 edition of The Americans said about 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, and then specified how many were passengers on the planes, people who worked at or were visiting the World Trade Center, and how many were first responders. The 2010 version cut out the breakdown of the casualties.

“A lot of the main themes that we saw way back in 2003 — in terms of, it’s a day of remembrance, a focus on the first responders and the heroes of the day and the actions they took, the world coming together in response to this horrible terrorist attack — a lot of those themes are still very much the way it’s being taught,” says Stoddard. “Middle schools are focusing a little bit more on first responders and heroes of the day. High school is where you would probably see more of an emphasis on the causes, the events leading up to it and maybe more on the response. High – school teachers did talk more about the Patriot Act and surveillance and some of those national-security-versus-civil-liberties types of issues.”

Read more: The TIME for Kids Guide to Talking About Tough Topics

Beyond the Textbooks

But, in keeping with some larger pedagogical trends in recent years, textbooks are not the go-to resource for learning about 9/11 in 2019.

Part of the reason is that, even if publishers update textbooks, schools may not have the budget to buy the latest edition; Kayla Turner, a high school social studies teacher in Raleigh, N.C., says some of the textbooks used in her classes haven’t been updated since 2001. Like Hetrick, Turner relies on personal experience to connect her students to the material. “I get teary-eyed with my students,” she says, especially when she explains that her father was a corrections officer who got called in to do crowd control at Ground Zero, and her cousin’s husband was a first responder.

So, in Stoddard’s new survey of secondary-school teachers, 71% said they use websites, 33% said they use specific curricula produced by non-profit and educational organizations and 23% said they use textbooks to explain 9/11 — and about 20% of participants said they didn’t have the curriculum or materials they needed to discuss 9/11 and the War on Terror.

Some non-profits and educational organizations offer free online resources that help fill that void, especially for the youngest students. Teachers to whom TIME spoke mentioned the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s interactive timeline ; the museum also offers a range of educational resources, all the way down to kindergarten-appropriate lesson plans that talk about the search-and-rescue dogs and emergency preparedness. Other resources include sites like Teaching Tolerance, which produces online guidelines for educators on debunking negative stereotypes about Muslims.

But flexible curricula can also introduce a different kind of obstacle for teachers. For example, Turner says she’s gotten pushback from parents for making a point to tell her students that the Islamist extremists who hijacked the planes on 9/11 don’t represent the views of all Muslims, and she’s had students who have come to the subject believing conspiracy theories that 9/11 didn’t really happen or was orchestrated by the government. Stoddard says her experience is not uncommon, as other teachers have told him they are increasingly having to field questions from students about conspiracy theories.

One aspect of the curriculum that has drawn particular debate is the question of whether pictures from 9/11 are too disturbing to use in classrooms. But, while textbook publishers and writers consider the appropriateness of showing them, teachers say photo and video are making 9/11 resonate with students — particularly because, as difficult as it may be for older Americans to imagine, students may not feel any particular sense of pathos or fascination about the day.

During a recent Twitter chat for social studies teachers on discussing 9/11, some teachers said they rely on more visceral images and records, but that they also remind students that the current government agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and thorough airport security check-in processes are products of 9/11. Others point out ways students can help in a future crisis.

#sschat A2) I look to teach about the helpers. Who helped that day. It allows to teach about the content and then look to those who help. It then develops into teaching what we can do in everyday life. — Drew Monkemeyer (@DrewMonkemeyer) September 2, 2019

I've played the air traffic controller radio networks as they figured out the problem in real time. Shows incredible real time team work and crisis management that is a great conversation with students #sschat — Jim Janes (@thisMrJanes) September 2, 2019

“You have an audience that’s easily bored,” says Don Ritchie, co-author of the 2018 edition of McGraw-Hill’s United States History & Geography . “When I talk to students, they complain they get bored with history. They want events with emotion and drama. Injecting some drama into the story is the best way to do that.”

‘A Long Time Ago’

But what do kids themselves say they’re learning about 9/11?

At the 9/11 Memorial on the weekend before this year’s anniversary, kids and parents alike told TIME that school wasn’t where they had learned most of what they knew about the attacks.

Liam Kerr Finger, a 10-year-old fifth grader visiting New York City with his family from Burlington, N.C., said he’d seen the news footage from 9/11 last year, in a documentary playing on TV at home. But his twin sister, Eleanor Ford Kerr Finger, hadn’t seen footage of the attacks before going to the museum, and was trying to get her head around the significance of the events. While she found it easier to draw a line between the causes and effects of other historical events she’d learned about — the Civil War and the end of slavery, the Revolutionary War and American independence — it wasn’t immediately clear how 9/11 had changed the world. One of her parents, Shellie Kerr, said she had been trying to explain to her kids that in fact they saw the effects of 9/11 in their everyday lives all the time, right down to the security line they had to wait on to enter the museum that day.

Joshua Petit-Day, 10, from Linden, N.J., said he had been learning about the attacks since first grade. His parents took him to the museum around the anniversary, and he said he learns more new details about 9/11 every September. To him, the events of that day are a reminder of how dangerous the world is. “Everyone should know what it means and why it happened because you never know if something like that is going to happen again,” he said.

“It’s not really talked about a lot,” said Che Rose, 14, a 10th grader from Jersey City, N.J., who said he got the feeling that teachers were reluctant to get into it. His sister, Jordana, 12, a seventh grader, had recently read a novel based on the attacks, Towers Falling. “At home we get more of the facts,” she said, pointing out that her father, who was with them, worked in midtown on 9/11. And, thinking about this moment that shaped the world into which she was born, she marveled at the fact that the attacks weren’t actually such faraway history after all.

“Feels like it was a long time ago,” she said. “Only 18 years ago? Feels further than that.”

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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at [email protected]

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GOP states sue to scrap Biden’s student loan repayment plan

Eleven Republican-led states sued on Thursday to overturn President Biden’s new student loan repayment plan, arguing the program is a scheme to provide widespread debt relief that the Supreme Court struck down last year.

The federal lawsuit, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, largely mirrors the claims in the case that brought down Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans last year. The states say the president has again overstepped his authority in creating the Saving on a Valuable Education program, commonly known as Save .

The plan, launched in October, provides lower monthly payments for millions of borrowers and a faster path to cancellation. It has already erased the balances of more than 150,000 enrollees, who originally borrowed less than $12,000 and have been paying for 10 years. The Biden administration has estimated the Save plan will cost $156 billion over the next decade, but the Congressional Budget Office says the figure is closer to $230 billion. The level of forgiveness has caught the ire of conservatives.

“In completely brazen fashion the president pressed ahead and implemented another version of the student loan forgiveness program,” Kobach told reporters at a news conference Thursday.

The Education Department declined to comment on the lawsuit. But in a statement Thursday, it said the administration “has been fighting to fix a broken student loan system, and part of that is creating the most affordable student loan repayment plan ever. The Biden-Harris Administration won’t stop fighting to provide support and relief to borrowers across the country — no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us.”

Joining the suit filed by Kobach were attorneys general from Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina and Utah. They intend to seek a temporary injunction to block the Save program.

Still, while the new lawsuit from the states revives arguments used in previous fights against debt relief, the Save plan is underpinned by a different authority than the forgiveness plan rejected by the high court. Whereas the Biden administration’s failed plan used a 9/11-era law to justify providing $430 billion in debt relief during the pandemic, the new Save plan was created using authority from the Higher Education Act that spawned income-driven repayment plans in 1993.

Kobach argues the Higher Education Act does not permit debt relief for anyone other than people who are permanently disabled, defrauded by their college, working in public service or bankrupt. But in its statement, the Education Department pointed out that Save represents the fourth time the federal agency has used the 1993 authority to expand income-driven options.

Save, which ties monthly payments to earnings and family size, is an amended version of an existing repayment plan known as Revised Pay as You Earn, or Repaye. All four income-driven plans promise to forgive a borrower’s balance after 20 or 25 years of payments.

Kobach, like many conservatives, argues broad debt relief is patently unfair to American taxpayers who did not go to college or saved to pay for school because it “forces them to pay for the student loans for those who ran up exorbitant student debt.”

Kansas was one of six states , including Missouri and Nebraska, that sued the Biden administration in 2022 to block broad-based debt cancellation. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down that program last year saying the president didn’t have the authority to enact sweeping policy without congressional input.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey praised Kobach’s new lawsuit Thursday and said he will be filing a related lawsuit.

Thursday’s lawsuit arrives the same week the White House hosted a day of action to promote the Save plan, which has enrolled more than 7.7 million borrowers to date. The administration estimates that the plan could save the typical borrower $1,000 a year on payments because it reduces the amount of income used to calculate monthly bills.

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The impact of student loan repayments : A technical loophole is helping some parents lower their student loan payments . The ending of the student loan payment pause has left some borrowers anxious and confused .

What are my student loan repayment options? Personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary shares what to focus on as student loan payments resume and why she says President Biden’s new SAVE student loan income-driven plan is a game changer .

What’s next for student loan debt relief? Biden is forging ahead on a new path to narrower student loan relief after the Supreme Court rejected his earlier loan forgiveness plan . Meanwhile, conservative groups sued to block Biden’s effort to provide $39 billion in forgiveness to longtime borrowers.

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Delhi School Result 2024: DoE Class 9, 11 results OUT at edudel.nic.in

After the results are announced, students can verify their class 9 and class 11 results on both the official website – edudel.nic.in.

Delhi School Result 2024: The Delhi Directorate of Education (DoE) is preparing to release the results of the Class 9 and 11 examinations held in February and March 2024. Students who took these exams can anticipate the results to be available soon on the official website of the Directorate of Education, Delhi — edudel.nic.in. According to previous years’ trends, Delhi School results have been announced around March 30 or 31, consistent with last year’s release date of March 31.

The Class 11 results for Delhi schools will be issued separately for various streams. Students are recommended to have their student ID, class name, section, and date of birth details readily available to check their results. The official website will furnish the procedure for downloading the results, along with a direct link for convenient access.

After the results are announced, students can verify their Class 9 and Class 11 results on both the official website – edudel.nic.in – and the official student portal – edustud.nic.in. The scorecards will encompass vital particulars including the name of the board, school name, student name, roll number, father’s name, enrollment number, marks obtained in theory and practical examinations, and the result status.

Delhi School Result 2024: How to check results?

Step 1: Go to the official portals – edudel.nic.in or edustud.nic.in.

Step 2: Locate and click on the link titled “Class 9 and 11 Results 2023-24” on the homepage.

Step 3: Enter your login credentials, such as your roll number and date of birth.

Step 4: The Delhi Result 2024 will be displayed on the screen.

Step 5: Review the result carefully and proceed to download it.

Step 6: Print out a copy of the result for future reference.

Following the online release of results, students can procure a physical copy of their Class 9 and 11 results from their respective schools. Schools usually distribute mark sheets and certificates to students within a few days of the online result declaration. If any discrepancies are found in the Delhi Class 9 and 11 results or mark sheet, students should promptly notify their schools or school board officials. Furthermore, students dissatisfied with their results can opt for a re-evaluation of their answer sheets.

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Delhi School Result 2024 Out: Class 9, 11 result announced by DoE today at edudel.nic.in – Here’s how to check

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‘A completely different game’: Faculty, students harness AI in the classroom

Grace Honeyman ’26 describes her final project, made with AI, for Juan Hinestroza’s class “Textiles, Apparel and Innovation Design” in fall 2023.

By Susan Kelley, Cornell Chronicle

For 15 years, Professor Juan Hinestroza had been teaching his course on innovative textiles essentially the same way. But last fall, he changed it up, requiring his students to use generative AI.

In the past, the final project took a five-student team two months to finish. Last semester, each student working alone with AI did it in two weeks – with superior results.

Documenting their progress with blog posts, the students used AI tools to summarize research papers, then used that information to update an existing design that applies innovative textiles to a garment or object to solve a real-world problem. Some improved gloves that ease arthritis. Others updated shoes that convert the wearer’s movement to energy that warms the feet of people with diabetes. They also used the tools to create images of their designs. For the final research posters, they used only AI for imagery, text and references.

Juan Hinestroza, the Rebecca Q. Morgan ’60 Professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology, has embraced the use of AI in his courses.

“AI really liberated them to dig deeper. It’s like a calculator: You can spend your time doing your calculations by hand. But if you have a calculator, then you can spend more time doing something else,” said Hinestroza, the Rebecca Q. Morgan ’60 Professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology (CHE).

He is one of many faculty members across Cornell’s colleges and disciplines who are embracing AI’s capabilities and limitations in their classrooms.

To be sure, some faculty members do not allow the use of AI in their courses; a university committee initiated by Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff offered faculty guidance on the use of AI in the classroom in fall 2023.

“I tell my colleagues, especially those who are opposed to these tools, that you cannot teach the same way you were taught. Because it’s a completely different game,” Hinestroza said. “The reality is that these tools are being used by companies. They’re being used by other universities. So you have to train the students for the real world. The world that we as faculty members think exists – it doesn’t exist anymore.”

Hinestroza is one of five winners of the 2024 Teaching Innovation Awards (see sidebar). They will discuss their approaches at the Provost’s Teaching Innovation Showcase: Creative Responses to Generative AI, on April 11.

“The award winners, and other applicants as well, represent a wide and impressive range of responses to the new challenges and opportunities associated with generative AI in the classroom,” said Steven Jackson, vice provost for academic innovation. “They provide more great evidence of the skill and imagination of Cornell teachers in responding to ongoing changes in the teaching environment.”

‘We’re going to experiment’

Grace Honeyman ’26 had minimal experience with AI prior to taking Hinestroza’s course, “Textiles, Apparel and Innovation Design.” She had never even opened a ChatGPT account on her computer.

Grace Honeyman ’26 gave the AI platform Midjourney the prompt “create a schematic image of an elderly man wearing a piezoelectric nanogenerator embedded textile for medical monitoring” to create this image.

The course introduced her and other students to AI tools that can create images and interpret scientific literature, including ChatGPT, Midjourney, BingChat, Claude.ai, DALL-E, Jasper.ai and Adobe’s Firefly and Sensei. “I told them, ‘I’m learning as you are. And we’re going to experiment,’” Hinestroza said. “The students were incredibly patient and played along as we made mistakes and found ways to optimize the use of tools.”

For her final project, Honeyman redesigned a medical undershirt, which reads the vital signs of people with congestive heart failure, to include a piezoelectric nanogenerator that converts the kinetic energy of the wearer’s movement into electrical energy within the textile, eliminating the need for a bulky battery pack.

Nancy Wang ’24 used the AI DALL-E3 and the prompt “create a schematic of one layer of flexible battery, one layer of woven conductive thread, and one layer of textile” to create this image.

She fed a series of prompts into Midjourney and Bing.AI, which eventually created images that matched what she had in mind. “I don’t have time to do a five-hour Photoshop tutorial and put together a schematic of what my textile looks like,” she said. “Doing that on DALL-E or Midjourney take five or 10 minutes, depending on how long it takes you to type in your prompt.”

That gave her more time to research how to update the technology, textile applications and intended use. “A lot of what people are missing is that students start with an image in our minds,” she said. “It’s not really all being done by AI – we still have to use our creativity.”

And they had to watch out for the tools’ mistakes. Sometimes AI creates images of a hand, for example, that has only three fingers, or “hallucinates” research papers that don’t exist.

“Honestly, being very, very critical of all this technology is one of the most important skills to learn and one of the most important things I did learn from this class,” Honeyman said.

‘The genie is out of the bottle’

A few major AI image-generating tools were released about a month before Jennifer Birkeland , assistant professor of landscape architecture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, started teaching her course on graphic communication.

And she had heard many professionals in landscape architecture were using them already, so she started playing around with the tools herself. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is really weird and interesting. This is a really critical tool. I need to incorporate this somehow into my class,’” she said.

Matthew Sprague, MLA ’26, used Midjourney AI to create this digital landscape for a class on graphic communication in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Her students wrote a series of prompts to make the tools create an image that they’d work with for the rest of the semester. They used Rhinoceros 3D, a modeling software, to create 3D models and then cross-sections of the object, and further iterations through the traditional design process.

She aimed to teach students to think critically and become AI literate. “It’s two-sided,” Birkeland said. “Yes, AI is cool and smart, but it’s also dumb.”

For example, she asked students to use one prompt with different AI tools and compare the results. The exercise demonstrated that each tool draws from a different library of data to generate images – and often include racial and gender biases. “I asked, ‘Did you get only men in this one? Or did you only get white men, versus another tool that might have had something else?’” Birkeland said.

The tools are helping Matthew Sprague, MLA ’26, learn to recognize good design, he said. The images AI tools create are “pretty peculiar and strange-looking, mostly,” he said. “It makes you think about style and what visually works or doesn’t. And you can identify some of that in your own work. You need to have some design skills to take that and make it look right.”

Matthew Sprague, MLA ’26, used Midjourney AI to create this image of an urban garden for a class on graphic communication in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The tools have other limitations. For example, they wouldn’t be able to do assignments for his main studio class, Sprague said. “If I tried to tell it to make those drawings, it wouldn’t have any clue what I was talking about, especially with architectural drawings that need to be precise. It’s not there yet.”

But the tools do level the playing field for students who don’t have a fine-art background, Birkeland said. “People who don’t draw are now able to generate these images, and then use them as references to show people what they’re envisioning.”

Given the increasing use of AI, instructors have a responsibility to teach students how to use it, Birkeland said. “Whether we like it or not, it’s not going away – not at this point. The genie is out of the bottle.”

Transformative change

In the government class “America Confronts the World,” students treated large language models like ChatGPT as interlocutors that supported, rather than substituted for, original writing.

“After attending Center for Teaching Innovation workshops and consulting instructor reflections, we implemented a two-pronged approach that required responsible yet creative student engagement with AI,” said Peter Katzenstein , the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. He collaborated with his teaching assistants – doctoral candidates Amelia C. Arsenault, M.A. ’23, and Musckaan Chauhan, M.A. ’23 – to integrate AI into the classwork.

“This is a tool that students are using already, and it’s probably not going away,” said Arsenault, whose research focuses on surveillance technologies, which rely heavily on AI. “We thought this would be an opportunity for us to teach them how to use it in a way that was actually most useful for them.”

2024 Teaching Innovation Award

Five faculty members have been honored with the 2024 Teaching Innovation Award, sponsored by the Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and the Center for Teaching Innovation . This year’s theme, “Creative Responses to Generative Artificial Intelligence,” recognizes creative approaches from the last year developed in response to generative AI.

Award winners will present their experiences at the Provost’s Teaching Innovation Showcase: Creative Responses to Generative AI, on April 11. The winners will collaborate with CTI to share their experiences with colleagues.

The winners:

• Jennifer Birkeland , assistant professor of landscape architecture, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences;
• Tracy Carrick , senior lecturer, John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines, College of Arts & Sciences (A&S);
• Juan Hinestroza , the Rebecca Q. Morgan ’60 Professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, College of Human Ecology;
• Peter Katzenstein , the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Department of Government, A&S; and
• Amie Patchen , lecturer, Department of Public and Ecosystem Health, College of Veterinary Medicine.

The course focuses on the wide range of views at play in American politics and foreign policy. Four written assignments integrated AI, while four had non-AI prompts.

In one assignment, students wrote an essay based on class readings and then brainstormed an objecting argument; in another, they fed their essay into an AI tool and asked it to come up with an objecting argument that they then counterargued to strengthen their thesis. Throughout the course, the students did reflections on their experiences with AI.

“The students appreciated that we were willing to deal with it in some way, shape or form,” Arsenault said.

Esteban Lau ’25, a government major in A&S, was surprised to find that when he prompted the AI tool to counter his essay, it argued for his point instead. Like other students, he found he had to try several different prompts to get the result he wanted. “I guess that comes down to what people call ‘prompt engineering.’ I’m actually getting better at using the AI tool,” he said.

“But at the same time, I think there’s a lot of value in not using them and developing your own analytical thought,” he said. “And it’s a difficult balance to strike because, you know, some students do use AI writing as a crutch, and they rely on it too heavily. And I think that impacts their education.”

Increasingly there are tools that purport to identify when a student has cheated and used an AI tool to write their essay, but they are highly unreliable, Arsenault said. “Rather than getting yourself in that position where you have to make very difficult, probably impossible decisions about what is and what is not generated by ChatGPT, we can put up parameters about how we would like to see it used in the class. The goal is, the students will learn real skills, and hopefully take those forward with them as they enter the workplace.”

Katzenstein thinks of AI as transformative rather than marginal change, he said. “Students will have to find their way in this world while writing, as a basic cultural technology, will fundamentally change.”

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Delhi School Class 9, 11 Results 2024 Declared: Steps to Check at edudel.nic.in

Published By : Sukanya Nandy

Trending Desk

Last Updated: March 30, 2024, 12:47 IST

New Delhi, India

Delhi school classes 9 and 11 results 2024 are now available at edudel.nic.in

Students who appeared for the Delhi School Class 9 and 11 exams 2024 can now check the results on the official website of the DoE at edudel.nic.in

The Delhi Directorate of Education (DoE) has announced the results of the class 9 and class 11 examinations today, March 30. The directorate has declared the class 11 results for all streams — arts, science, and commerce. The exams were conducted in February and March 2024. Students who appeared for these exams can check the results on the official website of the Directorate of Education, Delhi — edudel.nic.in.

Students are advised to keep their student ID, class name, section, and date of birth details handy to check their results. The results are also available on the official student portal — edustud.nic.in. The scorecards will contain important details such as the name of the board, school name, student name, roll number, father’s name, enrollment number, theory and practical marks, and result status. In case of any discrepancy in the report cards online, students are advised to report to their school authorities or directly to the directorate and get it rectified.

Delhi Class 9, 11 Result 2024: How to Check Scores?

Step 1. Visit any of the official portals – edudel.nic.in or edustud.nic.in.

Step 2. On the homepage, click on the link that says “Class 9 and 11 Results 2023-24″.

Step 3. Key in your login credentials like student ID, class, section, and date of birth.

Step 4. The Delhi Result 2024 will appear on the screen.

Step 5. Go through the result carefully and download it.

Step 6. Take a printout of the Delhi school class 9/ class 11 result for future reference.

ALSO READ | Delhi School Result 2024 For Classes 3, 4, 6, and 7 Declared; Steps to Check, Direct Link

After the online declaration of results, students can obtain a physical copy of their Class 9 and 11 results from their respective schools. Schools typically provide mark sheets and certificates to students a few days after the online result announcement. Additionally, students who are not satisfied with their results have the option to request a re-evaluation of their answer sheets.

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