A new curriculum teaching middle school and high school aged students about what happened on September 11, 2001 and the effects of that day is being tested this year at schools in New York City, California, New Jersey, Alabama, Indiana, Illinois and Kansas. The curriculum was developed with the help of educators by the Brick, N.J.-based Sept. 11 Education Trust, and was based on primary sources, archival footage and more than 70 interviews with witnesses, family members of victims and politicians, including former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a New York senator at the time of the attacks.

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The curriculum, which is taught through videos, lessons and interactive exercises, including one that requires students to use Google Earth software to map global terrorist activity, is believed to be the first comprehensive educational plan focusing on the 9/11 attacks.
The thought is that as time goes on, students remember and understand less and less of that day considering how young they were at the time. This is true, but as a former high school teacher, I couldn't help wondering if teaching about 9/11 in such depth could lead to some arguments in schools between students of different backgrounds. I am not saying our curriculum should ignore 9/11. After all, it is already in History textbooks. I just know how hard it can be to teach controversial and touchy subjects. According to this article, many viewpoints are included in this curriculum, including from Muslim scholars. I think this is so important. Students have to see both sides. In my World Geography class, I dealt with 9/11 by showing a video called "The Roots of 9/11" by Thomas Friedman. In this video, Friedman travels to Southwest Asia to try and understand why 9/11 happened. It was fascinating and something my students really enjoyed although some of them did have comments to make which weren't pleasing to everyone.
I am sure this new curriculum is amazing and I think it is great that students and professors are invited to participate on a Web site, where they can share their own videos, lesson plans and discuss the questions raised in their classrooms because I am sure there will be plenty of questions and interesting discussions in the classrooms where it used.