9/11

Today i had the pleasure of observing a class on September 11th. I have seen a lot of great World History content but it was nice to see a special topic discussed.

I noticed several things...

It wasn't until the lesson started that I really thought about the fact that no, or at least very few, students were alive during 9/11. I was in kindergarten when it happened and while I don't remember much, I still consider it something that happened in my lifetime. To many of these students, 9/11 might as well be the Vietnam war. They don't have the memories, or prior experiences, to relate to 9/11. In my classes growing up, it was always a very respected topic. There was almost always a student who had a family member who passed away, an older sibling who was in New York on that day, or other personal connections; almost every classmate of mine remembered getting pulled out of school. Only one student in this class had a personal story, and certainly no one remembered it.

The other thing i noticed in this observation was the cultural differences between students. This is only a speculation; I have not spent much time in the classroom and therefore I do not know the students very well. During the entire presentation, the videos, the discussions, the notes, etc., three Hispanic students in the back of the classroom were actively not paying attention. They spoke to one and other in Spanish for the entire class, not even pretending to be on topic or paying attention. I know from a brief conversation with the teacher that their English is limited and can infer that they are very submerged in a different culture at home. I wonder if they didn't feel that 9/11 was important because they don't identify with American culture? This might be a little extreme, however, the students were clearly making it known that they did not want to pay attention and I have not seen that behavior when I have observed them in the past.