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When students don’t know 9/11 (HS Students have no memory or knowledge of the event)
Boston Globe ^ | September 11, 2009 | Sarah Schweitzer

Posted on 09/11/2009 9:54:40 PM PDT by greatdefender

Three years ago, Julie Fox commemorated 9/11 with her students by asking them to write journal entries recounting where they were when the planes hit and how they felt at that moment.

But the Norwell High School social studies teacher has had to retire that assignment. Too few students remember the day, the succession of ever-worsening reports, the horror of the World Trade Center towers cascading into dust, employees fleeing the Pentagon, and investigators combing through the wreckage in a Pennsylvania field. Now, instead, she spends class time on Sept. 11 explaining the basics of what happened that day and why.

“It’s almost like teaching the Civil War,’’ Fox said.

For many, Sept. 11, 2001, is still a day vividly recalled, its details indelibly etched in minds. But on this eighth anniversary, a growing number of schoolchildren are entering classrooms with little or no memory of the day’s events, propelling teachers and school districts to grapple with how to teach a topic inexorably evolving from a current event into recorded history.

“We used to be able to use 9/11 as a touchstone. The students recognized it as an event they lived through and that affected the way that they lived,’’ said Robby Chisholm, senior program director for history and social studies for Boston public schools. “Now we view it as an opportunity to have a historical discus sion.’’

Monica Castro of Roxbury, a 14-year-old freshman at the South Boston Education Complex, is among the ranks with little recall. She was 6 at the time of the attacks and has learned about them since from teachers; however, yesterday she was not sure who committed them.

“I forgot - the Muslims or someone,’’ she said.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: 8thanniversary; 911; eighthanniversary; history; schools; teens
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1 posted on 09/11/2009 9:54:41 PM PDT by greatdefender
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To: greatdefender

Time marches on. I was born in ‘45, I don’t remember anything from personal experience about the Korean war.

What’s the point? Teach 9/11 as history to those too young to remember.


2 posted on 09/11/2009 9:58:34 PM PDT by Graybeard58 ( Selah.)
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To: greatdefender

Then her students are idiots - I had several young homeschool friends tell me today where they were and what they were doing at the time and most were in elementary school.


3 posted on 09/11/2009 9:58:55 PM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA (College Football Season!!!! Air Raid!)
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To: Graybeard58

I was born in ‘63 and I remember the moon landings and a lot of Vietnam.


4 posted on 09/11/2009 10:02:21 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: greatdefender

How could they not know about it? My 13 yo niece remembers, my almost 11 yo nephew remembers the planes that knocked down the buildings and my sister has since made sure he knew more about that day, both my 15 yo and 17 yo nephews knows about that day?


5 posted on 09/11/2009 10:02:28 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: greatdefender
How could someone forget something like that? I was 8 when the Challenger exploded. I remember it vividly. I remember being bug-eyed when I saw a parachute open praying that one of them were still alive. It was just an empty gesture at rescue.

It has to be video games, internet, twitter, facebook, myspace, text, IM and etc., right?

I can't get my 10 and 12 year olds to sit down for O’Reilly for five minutes to save my life.

6 posted on 09/11/2009 10:04:37 PM PDT by Sarah 2012
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To: WhyisaTexasgirlinPA

This is not new. A lot of people are like this, especially women. I used to work with a lady who grew up during the Vietnam War, had friends and relatives that fought in Vietnam. She openly admitted she knew nothing about Vietnam. She giggled and said, “Now which one was that, the one in Europe?”


7 posted on 09/11/2009 10:04:42 PM PDT by IDontLikeToPayTaxes
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To: greatdefender

The twitter generation...what didn’t happen yesterday doesn’t matter.

But it happens to all of us in this fast world. I woke today feeling blah about things, because of the anniversy..then sure enough...my cousin wrote a blog capturing my feelings...what can you say to a generation that will FORGET or BLAME AMERICA?


8 posted on 09/11/2009 10:05:53 PM PDT by Winstons Julia (doubleplusungood)
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To: greatdefender
“I forgot - the Muslims or someone,’’ she said.

pathetic... pick up a damn book... her parents should feel ashamed...

9 posted on 09/11/2009 10:06:05 PM PDT by latina4dubya ( self-proclaimed tequila snob)
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To: greatdefender
When we meet those who don't know...who are too young to remember, or later, who were not born yet...WE TEACH THEM...just like my parents taught me about Pearl Harbor.


THE ATTACK ON AMERICA MEMORIAL SITE

ALWAYS REMEMBER - NEVER FORGET!

10 posted on 09/11/2009 10:06:51 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: greatdefender

Those that don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it.


11 posted on 09/11/2009 10:07:01 PM PDT by hercuroc
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To: greatdefender

Not too many 15 year old sophomores had much of a world view at age 7.


12 posted on 09/11/2009 10:07:17 PM PDT by fso301
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To: Graybeard58

I election and an you but remember saying good by to my dad
when he left for the first yrs of the Korean War.

In elementery school remember Ike, Hungarian uprising, Cold War with Russia, etc.

Was under 13 but remember following the 1960 election and the returns on election night.

The kids in the article are typical of the recent decades
and their parents are no better.


13 posted on 09/11/2009 10:08:13 PM PDT by SoCalPol (Reagan Republican for Palin 2012)
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To: fso301; IDontLikeToPayTaxes

That is true, a first grader might not remember everything about that day, but they have had 8 years of reminders and ceremonies and teachers talking about it to “refresh” their memories.....


14 posted on 09/11/2009 10:09:40 PM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA (College Football Season!!!! Air Raid!)
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To: greatdefender

I have to say I find it difficult for a 6 year old to remember where they were a certain day at a certain time.

As for me, I was in my third period English class, 3rd year in high school, when a kid came in and announced it in class. I will never forget.


15 posted on 09/11/2009 10:10:33 PM PDT by wastedyears (The best aid we could ever give Africa would be thousands of rifles to throw out their own dictators)
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To: greatdefender

I have never forgotten what my then almost 8 yr old grandson asked me on 9/12/01.....after telling me his Mom was always watching it on TV.....”Why do they want to kill us?” Luckily, I had an answer.....”There are evil people in this world.” I KNOW he (now nearly 17) remembers.


16 posted on 09/11/2009 10:12:03 PM PDT by goodnesswins (George Orwell would be proud. Truth are lies, Slavery is Freedom, Oppression is Feminism.)
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To: greatdefender

I was 6 during the start of Gulf War 1 in 1990. I remember sitting down as a family eating dinner, and we were watching the nightly 6pm news on our kitchen tv when it was announced we were going to war. My dad said to my brother and I, “Boys I want you to remember this day, and what you were doing.” To this day, I remember sitting there eating dinner, while Peter Jennings was announcing that the USA was going to war against Iraq, and the Presidents address.


17 posted on 09/11/2009 10:12:35 PM PDT by RatsDawg (At least we don't have to worry about riding in Ted Kennedy's car anymore...)
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To: Sarah 2012

Learn the video games, and tell your kids that if you beat them, they watch Beck for a half hour.

Hopefully you won’t have to do that too many times until they set aside an hour during the week to watch him every day.


18 posted on 09/11/2009 10:14:30 PM PDT by wastedyears (The best aid we could ever give Africa would be thousands of rifles to throw out their own dictators)
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To: greatdefender

I remember media reports from back then, about some parents sheltering their children from the horrors of 9/11.


19 posted on 09/11/2009 10:16:29 PM PDT by RatsDawg (At least we don't have to worry about riding in Ted Kennedy's car anymore...)
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To: Graybeard58

I still remember Ancient Rome.


20 posted on 09/11/2009 10:16:35 PM PDT by MrsEmmaPeel (a government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything you have)
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