WASHINGTON (TNND) — A new report is raising concerns that many students may not be getting taught the history of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, with researchers finding that only a small number of states have laws that encourage or require schools to include 9/11 in instruction or commemorations.
The study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that fewer than a dozen states currently have statutes passed that encourage or require including the attacks in either curriculum or schoolwide activity, such as a moment of silence, classwork or a school assembly.
We promised at that point that we would never forget and the reality is we have,” Michael Shires, Vice Chair of the Education Opportunity Policy at the America First Policy Institute told The National News Desk Tuesday.
Our researcher found only two states, Arizona and Florida, have standalone laws requiring 9/11 education. Five states have laws addressing 9/11 observance and nearly two dozen states have academic standards requiring instruction. New York, where the attacks happened, is among the states that require schools to observe a moment of silence and includes the attacks in social studies standards. But the state has no standard curriculum.
There’s just been this concerted effort to try and rewrite that history. It was a horrific day, it’s something we need to remember,” Shires said.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., is pushing legislation that would mandate 9/11 be taught in all 50 states.
I remember the events of September 11, 2001, as if they were yesterday, and I know the same is true for most Americans who lived through that horrific day,” Garbarino said. “For tens of millions of young Americans, and for future generations who were not there to see it, we have a responsibility to preserve the memories of the fallen, the heroism we witnessed, and the national security failures that left our country vulnerable to attack. We made a promise to ‘Never Forget’, but today, only a handful of states require 9/11 to be taught in their schools. My goal is to make that number fifty, so every child in America grows up understanding the lessons of that day and the sacrifices that followed.
Meanwhile, Shires said he believes broader action is needed to ensure 9/11 education is required.
Whether it’s federal legislation, state by state legislation, common sense Americans need to rise up and say enough is enough,” Shires said.
Without a standard in place, the education watchdog ‘North American Values Institute’ highlighted a curriculum some schools are reportedly choosing to use called “Teaching Beyond September 11th.” Developed by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, the institute’s review found minimal instruction on the attacks themselves, no discussion of al-Qaeda’s ideology, and an emphasis on Islamophobia.
If we don’t acknowledge they happened and who was doing what to whom and why, at the end of the day we just leave the ground fertile for those things to happen again,” Shires said.
Separately, an ‘Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa’ survey of 470 Middle East scholars found that 66% said they were not confident their current students could identify the causes and main perpetrators of the attacks.