Making 9/11 anniversary a teachable moment

Educators across Long Island are seizing on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to teach about the devastating event that struck so close to home and generates such wrenching emotions among their students.

"Schools, certainly in our area . . . are going to tackle this because of the immediate connection to loved ones and neighbors," said Peter Nelson, New York director of Facing History and Ourselves, an educational nonprofit organization that is presenting 9/11 teaching workshops with the Tribute WTC Visitor Center in lower Manhattan.

Scores of teachers from the metropolitan area will pack the workshop near Ground Zero. Demand was so great for "How to Talk With Students About 9/11, Ten Years Later" that Tuesday's session filled to capacity and a second session was added Thursday.

"We were very aware that teachers, especially on Long Island and in the metropolitan area, were quite traumatized by 9/11," said Wendy Aibel-Weiss, the tribute center's director of exhibits and education. "Many said it was the worst day of their teaching career, and principals [had] said they are not going to talk about it because it traumatized our students. Many children know only one thing -- that planes crashed into the buildings.

"There's been a total tidal change, and many more local schools are calling us," Aibel-Weiss said. "They are all teachers who say, 'OK, it's time. It's time for me to address this.' "

Teaching about Sept. 11 is not mandated in New York public schools. Specific school curricula are primarily a local district matter, though the state Department of Education requires districts to cover seven core areas, including math, science and social studies.

Little in textbooks

The head of the September 11th Families' Association has asked both federal officials and the state Education Department to create 9/11 lessons. But while New York has included related questions in Regents exams for most of the past decade, educators at the tribute center said the topic is barely covered in textbooks.Often, teachers of history or related courses barely make it past World War II.

With the 10th anniversary approaching, Abel-Weiss said the shift in interest by Long Island schools has been noticeable.

The tribute center, which opened in 2006, offers visitors lessons about 9/11 through first-person accounts and gallery exhibits, including a crumpled plane window recovered from the site in lower Manhattan. Walking tours of Ground Zero also are offered.

Several local educators, through their own initiative, already teach about Sept. 11.

In Jericho schools, social studies curriculum associate Eric Sundberg outlined the district's lesson plan for all grades.

"This is sensitive, and teachers need to be sensitive to student readiness," he said. "Our youngest students will probably learn about this as a story of courage and service," while fourth through sixth graders "will study the events in consideration of how they changed America and the world."

Jericho's middle school students "will study how we get information about and remember the attacks," Sundberg continued, "and high school students will study ongoing questions surrounding the attacks and the decisions governments have made since."

In Great Neck, middle schoolteacher Michelle Mastrande and others created a curriculum that includes lessons on the World Trade Center's destruction as well as the science behind diseases afflicting those who responded and who worked at Ground Zero afterward.

Teaching about 9/11 can be complicated. The anniversary falls at the start of the school, when teachers and students are just getting to know one another. Present-day events, such as the May killing of al-Qaida head Osama bin Laden, stem directly from it.

Cautious approach

Riverhead fourth-grade teacher James Richardson plans to discuss the attacks with students, as he does each year. He is cautious in his approach.

"We will talk about it, the significance of it, and I really go where the conversation goes," he said. "When they are this young, I don't want to scare them."

Adam Brach, 16, who just completed his sophomore year at Jericho High School, said that for most of his life he only knew the most basic facts of Sept. 11. Learning about it in high school, he has a far greater understanding of the attacks and their continuing effects.

"When I was a little kid and when it happened, all of our parents and everyone limited our exposure," he said.

Waverly Park Elementary in East Rockaway was among a handful of Island schools whose students took a field trip to the tribute center during the past school year. The school's staff feels very strongly about commemorating 9/11, principal Lucille McAssey said.

A peace pole has been erected at the school, and a tribute garden planted near the playground.

The theme of the day on Sept. 11 is, "How can we make the world a better place?" she said, adding that images of the attack can frighten younger students.

"Our concern is that children see the events on television; they are not oblivious to that," McAssey said. "We feel compelled to introduce it and to make it age-appropriate -- and to teach children that sometimes bad things happen in this world."