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Majority of States' Standards Don't Mention 9/11

A sign in Arabic saying “Arabic Class” hangs on the wall of Lalainya Goldsberry’s classroom at Lindblom Math and Science Academy in Chicago. More U.S. students are taking the language since 9/11, but far more study other foreign languages.

—John Zich for Education Week

Attacks, Causes, Aftermath Find Place in Some Lessons

By Erik W. Robelen

Ten years after terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the profound impact on the United States is not hard to see, from heightened domestic-security measures to the U.S. role in conflicts deemed part of a war on terror. What’s less obvious is how the attacks have filtered into American classrooms.

Some observers and educators suggest the effects on instruction are generally at the margins, that the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City, suburban Washington, and southwest Pennsylvania appear to get little or no attention in most social studies classes.

In fact, fewer than half the states explicitly identify the 9/11 attacks in their high school standards for social studies, according...