Wrestling With the Lessons of 9/11

Teachers Take Varying Tacks to Help Students Grasp Historical Significance

What do Osama bin Laden and Pancho Villa have in common?

If terrorist strikes five years ago defined a generation, what events played a similar role for earlier generations?

Teacher Dan Kent posed such questions yesterday to his Advanced Placement U.S. history class at Broad Run High School in Ashburn as he cast Sept. 11, 2001, in the light of history on the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

Until recently, 9/11 has been difficult to broach in the classroom. But educators say that is starting to change. After a moment of silence observed yesterday in many schools, teachers launched into wide-ranging lessons about the attacks and their aftermath, often with little guidance beyond their own instincts.

"Historians don't like to spend a whole lot of time with recent history," Kent said. Without 20 years of hindsight and analysis, he said, it's hard to have a clear picture of any event. Kent said there are few reliable resources to help teachers with Sept. 11, pointing to what he called "a generic explanation" tacked onto Page 1,015 in the textbook he uses. "A lot of us have just put things together ourselves," he said.

In class, Kent sought to compare Sept. 11 to other historical events. He explained that Pancho Villa was a Mexican general who -- like al-Qaeda leader bin Laden -- was hunted by the U.S. military after he launched a raid into American territory early in the 20th century, during the Mexican revolution.

Students suggested that the Vietnam War was a defining event for Kent's generation. The teacher agreed but said the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was also a turning point.

Recalling their own memories of Sept. 11, students who were then sixth-graders told Kent that they did not grasp the significance of that day's events until some time afterward. One recalled a teacher who was in tears that day but could not explain to the youngsters what had happened to the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

Of bin Laden, students called him a fanatic who sought to build hatred toward this country. One said bin Laden disliked the United States because of its wealth and power. "It's like 'A Tale of Two Cities,' " said Goutham Peddi, 15, a junior, "the powerful against the poor."

Experts say the challenge teachers face as they grapple with Sept. 11 is that the causes and effects of the attacks are far from clear. Those are vital historical questions, said Susan Graseck of the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

The institute develops curriculum materials for teaching international issues, offering different perspectives on events and encouraging students to develop their own opinions. Graseck said thousands of teachers have purchased the institute's materials since 2001. She said the total, up sharply, is evidence of a renewed interest in international relations among educators.

History teachers long have noted that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans help protect the United States from foreign attack. But Graseck said Sept. 11 showed teachers and students "that we are connected to the rest of the world."