Indiana is among a majority of states that don’t require schools to educate students about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but teachers across the state have been tackling the topic anyway.
At Cedar Elementary School in Avon, students — many of whom weren’t born 10 years ago when planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington — are observing a moment of silence to honor the victims.
Avon students in grades four and higher are taking on more extensive lessons planned in their social studies classes.
In Gary, social studies teachers have lessons planned to talk about the event, which killed nearly 3,000 people. And one of the district’s high school bands will play at a city ceremony.
“It’s such an important event in our history that I don’t see how you couldn’t cover it,” said Emily Acklin, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Education.
To that end, some states have incorporated 9/11 into the educational standards that determine the curricula at schools.
The ones that have done it well use the attacks as an opportunity to explore broader themes, rather than simply as facts to remember, according to a new study about the treatment of the terrorist attacks in textbooks and state education standards.
“The 10-year anniversary of 9/11 is an important teachable moment,” said Diana Hess, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an author of the study.
“However, simple memorization of what happened on that day is clearly inadequate,” Hess said. “Some states have recognized this and added topics about 9/11 and its aftermath in the context of broader themes, important inquiry questions, and in a few cases, controversial political issues that students should deliberate.”
In the state of Washington, standards focus on the skills students need to participate as citizens and use 9/11-related topics — such as the resulting Patriot Act — as examples for discussions, the study said.
Vermont’s standards address terrorism more broadly, as part of a larger discussion about human rights and human interdependence, the study said.