MAT@USC Alumnus, Brooke Hopkins, was recently featured in her local newspaper. Remembering the attacks on 9/11 ten years ago, Brooke did her best to help her students understand the magnitude of that day. See the article originally printed in Eastern Wake News below.
–
SEPT. 11 ATTACKS AREN’T VIVID MEMORIES FOR ALL OF TODAY’S STUDENTS
KNIGHTDALE – Ten years ago today, Brooke Hopkins was in a similar position as her students.
Then a ninth-grader at a Dayton, Ohio, high school, Hopkins remembers hearing about the events of Sept. 11 as she sat at her desk – and having many concerns.
“My school was near an Air Force base, and I remember hearing aircraft flying overhead throughout the entire day. They had been ordered to land,” Hopkins said last week in her room at East Wake Middle. “As we watched it on TV, I remember feeling scared and confused.”
Today, the 23-year-old social studies teacher bears the responsibility of explaining the day’s significance to children too young at the time to remember Sept. 11, 2001. And there’s lots of explaining to do.
The questions, Hopkins and other teachers have said, range from “Why are we still at war?” and “Is our nation safe?” to “Why would someone kill all those people?”
Students often are learning the details of 9/11 for the first time.
“They’ve been very curious. I have one kid who has asked about 9/11 every day since the beginning of school,” Hopkins said. “It’s strange teaching someone who doesn’t know anything about that day.”
Room to teach
When it comes to answering those questions and teaching about 9/11, teachers are given leeway, said Wake County schools’ spokesman Greg Thomas.
“Teachers at every grade level are encouraged to talk to their students about current events,” Thomas said. “As long as the material is appropriate.”
Thomas said he couldn’t elaborate on what was appropriate for each grade level.
The topic of 9/11 isn’t required by the state to be taught until 11th grade, when instructors are supposed to teach about the effects of terrorism on American society, Thomas said. But history books that include information about 9/11 are handed out in some middle school classrooms.
It remains unclear how many elementary and middle school teachers have discussed 9/11 in their classrooms. Most Wake principals contacted said it was up to teachers to broach the subject. Principals at elementary schools said they didn’t think their teachers would spend much time on it.
School board member Chris Malone of Wake Forest said teachers should discuss 9/11 with their students as early as first grade.
“Every school will be having a moment of silence, and that’s sure to raise questions from kids about that age,” Malone said, adding that he talked about 9/11 with his daughter when she was 4 years old because he was on an airplane in Canada the day of the attacks.
Malone said he trusts teachers would use their best judgment in deciding how detailed to be in their explanations.
Different strokes
Sandy Ormerod, the social studies chairwoman at Wendell Middle, set aside time last week to talk in-depth about 9/11 and will continue lessons Monday.
“They need to learn what events led to 9/11, what extremism is, everything that happened that day, and why our military is still over in the Middle East,” Ormerod said. “I’ve encouraged my students to watch lots of TV this weekend, and on Monday we’ll review what else they learned.”
Hopkins, the East Wake Middle eighth-grade teacher, has taken a different approach.
Her class last week didn’t delve much into the politics of war or the brutality of the attack. They instead read from nonfiction books and analyzed artwork drawn by grade-schoolers in response to 9/11.
“I wanted to try to make 9/11 relatable to my students,” she said. “I think it helps having the story illustrated by kids who were their age at the time.”
aspecht@newsobserver.com or 829-4826
–
Specht, Paul A. “Eastern Wake News | Teaching 9/11 to Students Who Didn’t Live It.” Eastern Wake News. Eastern Wake News, 11 Sept. 2011. Web. 16 Sept. 2011. <http://www.easternwakenews.com/2011/09/11/13034/teaching-911-to-students-who-didnt.html>.
