B.A. Social Studies
Due to the chronological distance that our students have from 9/11, they often struggle to connect to that day personally. In most cases, they understand the general events surrounding the terrorist attacks and the mass number of casualties, but tend to be disconnected from the impact on individual lives and families. When I had the opportunity to study September 11th at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York with Gilder Lehrman over the summer, I focused on creating a lesson that would help my students make a more meaningful, personal, and emotional connection to the events surrounding that day. Every year our school district remembers 9/11 with a brief flag raising ceremony that always touches me and many of our faculty and staff members, but as I look around at our student body, they generally go through the motions and don’t necessarily understand the gravity and impact that the day that we are remembering had on the United States and the world. I was not directly impacted by the events that day, but watched them live from the classroom where I currently teach (second seat, second row) as a high school senior and was indirectly impacted by the economic, social, and military consequences of the attack on the country. It is the central historical event in my lifetime and the one that shook the world. It’s almost cliche to say that the world isn’t and never will be the same as before that day, but the older I get, the more I understand that statement. Spending five days in New York only enhanced my curiosity and emotional connection to that day. My most significant takeaways from my time spent at the memorial and museum were the number of names engraved into the memorial and the sheer size of the site and footprint of the World Trade Center. I searched for a way to help my students understand the scope of the attack in terms of the material (the twin towers and other buildings) and immaterial (the lives lost on that day). Our students are often introduced to film footage and summaries of the events of that day, but in most circumstances are not connected to it with any emotion. I grappled over the first three to four days with how to communicate the sheer size of the terrorist attacks while portraying each of the 2,996 people murdered that day as individuals. One of the centerpieces of the museum is the Ladder Company 3 fire truck. It is a unique piece that offers so many different interpretations of the event. Size, individuality, sacrifice and randomness each come to mind when reflecting on the artifact as it sits in the void between the footprints of the towers on the lowest floor (bedrock) of the museum. The massive truck suffered major damage, proving that the event was one of large scale. The question about who was on or travelled to the Trade Center on it also comes to mind immediately as they were taking significant risk to save lives. Finally, the truck can be divided into two segments, the rear, where there is moderate damage, and the front, which is absolutely destroyed and is recognizable only as large mangled pieces of metal, showing the randomness of the damage as a result of the attacks. As I walked through the museum multiple times, this piece continued to resonate with me and I kept coming back to it and eventually decided to turn it into an activity for my students to experience. I photographed the truck--not from the typical perspective of taking in the whole, but in segments from one of its rear wheels and tires, then consecutively backing away slowly providing more information to my students for them to analyze until I reached the line between the moderate damage in the rear and complete destruction in the front. These photos were going to be released to my students in the same way in the classroom activity. The activity was still missing the personal connection that I felt with the truck though. In order to find that meaning for myself and my students, I made my way to the memorial and found the names of each firefighter from Ladder Company 3 that died sacrificing their lives in order to save others. The classroom activity began and ended with these photos. When displaying the photos of the engraved names in the memorial, I provided no background, I simply asked my students to find a sheet of paper and tell me what they saw and next, to tell me what they thought. Most of them stated, “names,” then after being asked to provide more detail, they added a bit--”engraved names,” “somebody being remembered for some reason,” and others noticed the drops of water on the pieces of stone. Simply stated though, those names meant nothing to them at the beginning of the activity. The next photo reveals only one of the rear wheels and tires on the truck. It is a bit obvious that it’s a fire truck, leading students to make some basic assumptions. There is very little damage to this tire, only a patch and a small bit of damage in the right side of the photo reveal that there might be something out of the ordinary taking place. The second photo releases the second wheel and tire--it shows more damage as the tire is flat and the wheel damaged. After each of these photos are released the questions “what do you see?” and “what do you think/wonder?” were asked to the students who documented their answers on their paper throughout the entire activity. The next two photos reveal the rear half of the truck slowly. The first displaying the back ⅔ of it, and the second showing the entirety of the rear half of the truck. It is evident at this point that there was major damage to the truck. Students were then asked the same questions as above, but then an additional question, “what would your experience have been if you were here at the moment that this happened?” Then to clarify, “what would you be seeing, smelling, hearing, touching?” Finally, the students were instructed to draw or explain what they think the front end of the truck looks like. It is typically completely different to what the actual information released to them is in the next photo. In the final photo, the entirety of the fire truck was released to the students. In one class, there were gasps, and I think this makes it hit home that the damage was major and they begin asking themselves about the firefighters and making that connection. The same questions were asked, including the one about the experience. To drive the point home, I asked them to compare their experiences between the front and rear of the truck and in another to put themselves at the rear of the truck with their best friend standing at the front of the truck--this drives home the point of the randomness of the events that took place that day. If they were standing near the rear, they would have had a decent chance of living, but would have probably been injured, but if they were only three feet away, those chances of living were greatly diminished. After students were given a moment to process the entire scene, the photos of the names were then presented to them again and they were asked, “now what do these names mean to you?” This was one of the more emotional days in my ten years as a classroom teacher. I think that if you put yourself through the process honestly, you will feel the same way that they did. I was so proud of my students for working through the process and noticing the details, then processing what they felt afterward in a blog post where they shared their experiences throughout this activity. It created an atmosphere of curiosity about the event and we decompressed by opening the floor to questions about the day, the memorial, and the museum. Overall, the activity accomplished the goals of providing personal insight and emotion to the event and changed many perspectives on the events surrounding 9/11. Student Blog Posts: Reflections on 9/11 ActivityBefore reading, note that this post contains thoughts that are both rational and emotional...
As I write this, I’m watching news coverage on the most recent terror attacks on Paris… I would like to be candid in my views, but will be reserved because I know that as a public educator, I cannot portray my personal opinions and thoughts on government policy in a public forum. For that reason I will write tonight from the perspective of all of those educators who are charged with answering the questions regarding these events on Monday morning. Events like this, where innocent lives are lost, are the ones that are most intriguing to our students and offer the greatest opportunity to learn and discuss the topics of terrorism, national security, and foreign relations. Unfortunately, acts of terrorism have become all too common and are an issue that we will have to deal with regularly both as citizens of a global community and as educators who have the responsibility of providing perspective to our students when events like this take place. I argue that we should have meaningful discussion in response to the events that have taken place tonight. Although I cannot comment on my feelings regarding how we should deal with terrorism and terrorist organizations, it’s our responsibility as educators to be knowledgeable about the situations and events that are taking place worldwide that will affect this generation of students. Our responsibility as educators is to be able to provide information that promotes the ideals of the United States while respecting individual thoughts and beliefs. It is unbelievably difficult to keep the pendulum from swinging one way or another. As educators, how do we promote rational thought in these emotionally charged situations? My answer to this question: We don’t… Instead, we should offer answers that are both rationally and emotionally charged… If we truly believe that our way of life is the best way, then moments like this need to be portrayed, not as just something that is taking place overseas, but as something that is a direct threat to all of us as Americans and our values. I argue that times like this are the times that we should be emotionally charged in our classrooms to discuss American ideals… These are the times that we should be asking the “tough” questions to our students. What does it mean to be American? What role should the United States have in foreign relations? What is the United States’ role regarding terrorism overseas? Questions like these are the ones that have an impact on the future, and are the ones that will be most relevant to our students when they leave school. I am not advocating that we promote a feeling or belief one way or another, but it is up to us to inform this generation of students of the world that they are entering and provide a forum for this discussion. This world is not a world of peace, and as Americans, we need to be vigilant. One of our key roles as educators is to promote and teach our students this vigilance. Instead of teaching students to question the system that we have in the United States, I argue that we need to be focusing on and teaching them that the ideals of the United States are superior to terrorist organizations and the governments that support them. When watching any news channel or evening news show (from Fox News, to CNN, to MSNBC), one topic that is consistently discussed deals with the issue of these organizations recruiting United States citizens. I feel that we need to be honest as educators and be promoters of our system as a whole. We should be calling for and teaching our students responsible and informed citizenship. There is no better time to promote our ideals than in times like these. There should be no room for terror, but only the discussion in our classrooms of the use of those tactics as a threat to our ideals. There should be candid, honest discussion and dialogue with our students regarding events like the ones that happened this evening in Paris. This is the best way to defeat terrorism in the long run. We should not avoid these discussions, but should embrace and encourage them. As a history and government teacher, I understand the concept of sociological imagination and teach the value of perspective when studying history, government, and society. In my contemporary issues course, we focus on and debate the balance of civil liberties with the prevention of terrorism in the Post-9/11 Era. Students study multiple perspectives and are asked the difficult questions: Should racial profiling be used to narrow the field of terrorist suspects? Should torture be used to gain information regarding potential acts of terror? Should preventative detention be used as a method of preventing terror attacks? Should the government be allowed to take personal communication data in the name of national security? Although, this course is an elective, I would argue that it is the most relevant one that students are offered in our district because these debates are the same ones that are taking place between our political parties and are directing the policies of our government. The questions being debated here are the ones that are going to dictate future government policy. It is integral for our students to understand all perspectives of these debates and to have reasonable rationale for their perspectives on these topics. In cases like the ones that we face tonight, there are only two perspectives: one that is correct and one that is incorrect. Taking innocent lives is incorrect, no matter the perspective. As educators, our job is to promote only the correct. I encourage you to have meaningful dialogue with your students regarding these events when we arrive at school on Monday. Meaningful discussion is the basis for democratic society and is the purpose and original intent of the right to free speech. Encourage that discussion in order to prevent others from justifying acts like those that happened tonight in Paris, France. |
AuthorBrian Anton currently serves the Purdy R-II (Missouri) School District as the 7-12 Principal after working in the PK-12 Assistant Principal and Athletic Director roles for two years. In the 12 years prior to moving into administration, he served as an award-winning high school social studies teacher. Archives
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