September 13, 2002 The Choices for the 21st Century Education Program's curriculum unit on Responding to Terrorism: Challenges to Democracy has received national media attention during the past several months. The unit, published in February 2002, is designed to help secondary level teachers and students wrestle with the substantive issues surrounding the attacks of 9.11.
In both print and video media, it has been cited as an important classroom resource on the origins of terrorism, the politics of the contemporary Middle East, and policy questions facing U.S. leaders. At the core of the unit is a set of four distinct policy options that allows students to examine a range of alternatives, to consider the risks and trade-offs of each, and then to articulate their own considered views.
On July 28, the New York Times recognized the unit publicly in an article by reporter Jennifer Medina entitled "Colleges and High Schools to Observe 9/11." She mentions Illinois teacher and Choices Teaching Fellow Kelly Keogh, who acknowledged the importance of the unit for engaging students substantively in the issues. "More than 1,000 high schools," reports Ms. Medina, "say they intend to use the curriculum which includes background readings, case studies, examination of cartoons and a simulation involving policy options."
The unit was also the focus of a Providence Sunday Journal article, by Linda Borg on Sunday, August 25, entitled, "Sept. 11 alters history curricula" [ProJo archive registration required]. Nicolle Robinson, a teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Julie Hagler in Normal, Illinois were interviewed about the unit in a Chicago Tribune article on Tuesday, September 3, "Schools grapple with Sept. 11 lesson plan" [Tribune archive registration required].
Other features have appeared in the National School Boards News, Nikkei, and Sacramento Bee, and on CBS Sunday Morning (September 8), CBS Radio (September 10), and MSNBC (September 6). Coverage has also appeared in local media across the country.
Exercepts of the material are now posted to the PBS/NewsHour website for teachers, and the material has been listed as a recommended resource for teachers by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), and New York Times.
Susan Graseck, director of the Choices Program, describes one rationale for the unit:"Students study history in school, and we are in the middle of history right now. The choices we make today will shape the history we will live with for years to come. We have an important opportunity to help students understand why this history is so important, and to give them an opportunity to participate in the public dialogue."
In Part I of the unit, students explore the origins and evolution of terrorism, focusing on four recent cases in different parts of the world. Part II examines Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, the nature and role of political Islam, and U.S. policy in the Middle East. Part III considers the challenges faced by the United States at home and abroad.
At the heart of the unit, students explore through simulation and debate four possible policy responses to terrorism:
·direct an expanded assault on terrorism
·support United Nations leadership to fight terrorism
·defend our homeland
·address the underlying causes of terrorism
These options, framed in stark terms, are possible directions rather than directives, and students come to understand the arguments underlying each. Finally, the unit calls on students to formulate their own considered response to the situation. Most important, students learn that they too can articulate political positions and have a voice in a democratic process.
"We have a teachable moment here," states Graseck. "This is the key to our curriculum units: to help bring young people into the discussion in a constructive way. The approach emphasizes critical consideration of substantive issues and provides room for all perspectives. It has been shown to create a safe environment in which students can discuss in an informed way their differences and their shared values."
In a similar effort to respond to late-breaking international news, Choices Program staff recently developed a mini-unit on Iraq for use in high schools. Crisis with Iraq—Fall 2002 was posted to the Choices website on August 30. The Responding to Terrorism unit is available by contacting the Choices Program at http://www.choices.edu/edcurricpage.html.