AHA Session 73
Historians for Peace and Democracy 5
Radical History Review 5
Historians for Peace and Democracy 5
Radical History Review 5
Friday, January 8, 2027: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Rhythms Ballroom I (Sheraton New Orleans, 2nd Floor)
Chair:
Nicholas Peters, Jewish Museum Trondheim
Panel:
Jennifer Baniewicz, Amos Alonzo Stagg High School
Aisha Abdel Gawad, secondary school teacher and novelist
Mark Grow, Millbrook High School
Lance Miller, Central Columbia High School
Aisha Abdel Gawad, secondary school teacher and novelist
Mark Grow, Millbrook High School
Lance Miller, Central Columbia High School
Session Abstract
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have become one of the "difficult" topics for teachers of U.S. History. The events of that day, and U.S. government response to them, are the subject of sometimes competing narratives about the cause and significance of the so-called "War on Terror." Consideration of the topic can generate both emotionally and politically charged reactions, not to mention scrutiny from school administrators that sometimes plays out in contentious school board meetings, even today.
Many questions are worth considering about these historical events and how they are handled in schools. What positions were secondary school social studies and history teachers thrust into that day? How did they respond? What messages did they deliver to students and colleagues who searched for an answer to the question "Why?" How did they develop lessons about the attacks in subsequent years? What guidance did they receive from colleagues, administrators, school boards, state curriculum agencies, and from politicians, to shape messages about 9/11 to be delivered in schools? How did they experience 9/11 commemorations across the twenty-five years since? How did increasing Islamophobia and nationalism on the one hand, and criticism of U.S. government action on the other affect their lessons and school commemorations? What sort of source material did they use when teaching the topic? Were they questioned by parents, administrators, and school board members about their choices? Has their experience changed at all in the twenty-five years since the attacks? What does future instruction on this and other "difficult" topics look like in the Trump era?
This roundtable will feature current and former secondary school teachers with broad experience, most of whom were teaching on 9/11 and have continued to the present. They will reflect on their experience of teaching on the day of the attacks, and across the quarter century that followed, plus their experience of school commemorations over the same time period.
The roundtable will be of interest to historians of contemporary U.S. history, as well as to secondary school tachers, not to mention university faculty interested in how their own students are prepared.
Many questions are worth considering about these historical events and how they are handled in schools. What positions were secondary school social studies and history teachers thrust into that day? How did they respond? What messages did they deliver to students and colleagues who searched for an answer to the question "Why?" How did they develop lessons about the attacks in subsequent years? What guidance did they receive from colleagues, administrators, school boards, state curriculum agencies, and from politicians, to shape messages about 9/11 to be delivered in schools? How did they experience 9/11 commemorations across the twenty-five years since? How did increasing Islamophobia and nationalism on the one hand, and criticism of U.S. government action on the other affect their lessons and school commemorations? What sort of source material did they use when teaching the topic? Were they questioned by parents, administrators, and school board members about their choices? Has their experience changed at all in the twenty-five years since the attacks? What does future instruction on this and other "difficult" topics look like in the Trump era?
This roundtable will feature current and former secondary school teachers with broad experience, most of whom were teaching on 9/11 and have continued to the present. They will reflect on their experience of teaching on the day of the attacks, and across the quarter century that followed, plus their experience of school commemorations over the same time period.
The roundtable will be of interest to historians of contemporary U.S. history, as well as to secondary school tachers, not to mention university faculty interested in how their own students are prepared.
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