Student Reactions to 9/11, Then and Now.

The article presents the author's discussion of her high school history students' reactions to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She considers if it is possible to "teach" character in a history classroom given the second-class status of social studies in high schools and she believes that it can be done. She describes her experiences of using the terrorist attacks on that day as an influential landmark historical event. She relates the students' complaints regarding the history that they learned about was through reading and not by living through it. How the students' essays differed in tone when writing about the attacks and then writing about recommendations on how the U.S. government should respond is discussed.