This week teachers were to take some time to help students “remember” 9/11 even though they were only, like, two years old when the terrorist attacks happened.
“Stick to the facts,” we were advised, “and just read from this handout that relates the bare-bones events of the day” (and completely neglected the bigger picture).
Students in my classroom were rather low key about the whole thing, but another teacher told me one student’s recommended response to the events: “We should have attacked someone!”
The lesson also mentioned other “dark days” in U.S. history that brought about some good (9/11 brought about renewed helpfulness and patriotism among Americans), including the explosion of the Challenger with a teacher on board (which brought about safer space travel).
“Should we have attacked someone for that, too?” my colleague asked the student.
“Yes,” he said: “the Russians”–which is logical, I guess, considering that we started going to space only because they got there first.
