How to Talk to Children About 9/11
The BBC suffered another blow to its reputation this week when - due to allegations of bias - the network was forced to remove a website it published informing children about the causes of 9/11. PJM editor and former teacher Aaron Hanscom speculates on how you actually do tell kids about something so horrible and frightening.
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On September 11, 2001, I woke up to reports that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. A few hours later I was in front of my 5th grade class trying to explain the incomprehensible.
Many of my students had already seen television footage of the attacks while getting dressed or eating breakfast that morning. One boy asked me excitedly if I had seen “the huge explosion in the big building.” It wasn’t surprising that 10-year-olds would use the language of video games to try to make sense of something that shouldn’t happen in real life.
During the morning assembly our principal opted for more restrained language. She called what happened a “tragedy” not an attack, and spoke of those who “lost their lives” instead of those who were murdered. While no member of the faculty yet knew who had taken control of those planes, it was immediately clear to all that the nation was under attack. I’m not suggesting that elementary school students should have been made aware of this fact. Indeed, I did my best to make sure they felt as safe as possible. Protecting their innocence was the one thing that kept running through my mind.
Looking back on that day six years later, I can’t help but wonder how teachers discuss the anniversary in their classrooms. (That’s assuming they mention it at all, which they didn’t do this year at my younger brother’s Los Angeles high school.) In many ways, their challenge is much greater than mine was. We now all know that 19 radical Islamists hijacked those planes that Tuesday morning with the intention of murdering as many innocent Americans as possible. We also know that terrorists are not hesitant about slaughtering children to further their goals. Are we doing the next generation more damage by shielding them from the reality that the Western world faces ruthless enemies?
Put another way, aren’t there basic facts that even children should know about the war that has been waged against us? For example, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) explains 9/11 to children like this:
The way America has got involved in conflicts in regions like the Middle East has made some people very angry, including a group called al-Qaeda - who are widely thought to have been behind the attacks.
In the past, al-Qaeda leaders have declared a holy war - called a jihad - against the US. As part of this jihad, al-Qaeda members believe attacking US targets is something they should do.
When the attacks happened in 2001, there were a number of US troops in a country called Saudi Arabia, and the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, said he wanted them to leave.
The BBC has since taken down the page after a barrage of media criticism. There is absolutely no way a child could read what the BBC published and not believe America deserved, even if just a little bit, to be attacked on 9/11.
Notice how al-Qaeda is described as a “group”-you know, like the Cub Scouts-that was minding it’s own business until America overstepped its bounds. The attacks themselves just magically “happened, ” as opposed to being committed by terrorists, or, in BBC lingo, “members” of that previously described group. Children are also encouraged to note that Osama Bin Laden even said he wanted US troops to leave Saudi Arabia. (Did he say please, too?) Oh, and just to be sure the kids understand that evil Cheney and Bush just might have detonated a bomb or that the Mossad was behind the attacks, the BBC explains that al-Qaeda is only “widely believed” to be responsible.
It’s one thing not to needlessly scare children by telling them about all the evil out there in the world. It’s quite another thing to imply that if only America would change its ways, really bad people would no longer be a threat.
There are already enough children in the world today who believe that America and Israel are Big Satan and Little Satan. Recall the scenes of Palestinian children celebrating in the streets on 9/11.
Instead, we want our children to celebrate life. One of the most moving pieces of writing I read yesterday came from PJM’s Tel Aviv editor Allison Kaplan Sommer. She wrote on her website that she’d be celebrating on September 11 because that is the date of her 11-year-old son’s birthday. Her son was too young in 2001 to understand what happened on that day, but he knows now. Writes Sommer:
“He’s not oblivious anymore. He knows exactly what happened on 9/11. And in his 11-year-old way, he thinks his birthday is kind of cool and likes people’s reaction when he asks them, ‘Do you know what my birthday is? I’ll give you a hint — something really, really terrible happened on that day!’”
I’d feel more confident about the future if more children feel like Eitan Sommer does on his birthday: Loving life, but fully aware that there are some really bad people intent on taking it away.
Aaron Hanscom is a Los Angeles-based editor for Pajamas Media; his own blog is Scribblings.
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17 Comments
1. Tony Ryan:“We now all know that 19 radical Islamists hijacked those planes that Tuesday morning…”
Hmmm……perhaps you should amend that sentence to read “Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that 19 radical Islamists etc etc”.
Common sense seems very hard to come by these days when it comes to matters Islamic so I wouldn’t give everyone credit for believing what should be as plain as the nose on their face.
It would be nice to think the kids of today will be given a fighting chance for their future by being at least brought up on the facts but its probably too much to hope for.
Sep 13, 2007 - 3:52 am 2. LSW:Love this piece.
I think we’re a nation of death in some ways, too. But
unfortunantly we’re rooting for the bad guy in many
cases. It’s unimaginable to me that
people say that we deserved the attack. I remember
getting a ride from a friends mom a few days after the
attack and she literally said that “we had it coming”.
Why is it so easy for some of us to see who the real
bad guy is?
I’m more afraid of what my own people here are going
Sep 13, 2007 - 8:35 am 3. Manuel:to do then these terrorist pigs. I know what my Middle
Eastern enemy is thinking, but I don’t know what the
enemy that is my left-wing neighbor here in the US is
thinking.
I think by the age of the students you taught, they should no a thing or two about the big bad world out here. While I don’t support adults scaring students about such things as talking to stranger, I do think it is important that they are aware that evil it out there and needs to be challenged. Only then, we’ll this long war have a chance to be won.
Sep 13, 2007 - 8:51 am 4. AJ:As a former teacher, my students has similar reactions. In the LA public schools though, the first reaction of many teachers was to ascertain WHY they hate us? Do we meddle in their affairs? Did we have it coming because we support Israel, the lone democracy in the region? Were Bush and his oil buddies just looking to get rich? Sadly, with all obvious evidence showing who the evil perpetrators were, left wing educators looked first to criticise their own nation. And they continue to do so today throughout America, especially our heroic troops. Educators, sad as this may sound, are the LAST people our students should listen to about serious issues. My reactions were like Hanscom, and hopefully my students had some perspective because of it.
Sep 13, 2007 - 9:01 am 5. Texas Gal:Thanks for alerting me that the BBC was indoctrinating children with Islamist’s propoganda about the ‘evil Americans’ occupying the Muslim lands as justification for the murder of thousands on September 11, 2001.
Oh yeah, it was taken down. I’ll share the communiqu√©:
—–Original Message—–
From: texasgalh@aol.com [mailto:texasgalh@aol.com]
Sent: 11 September 2007 18:22
To: Errors
Subject: Mistakes
From: Texas Gal
Email address: texasgalh@aol.com
Age: American
Comments: I’m curious, is this website operated by the BBC or Osama bin
Laden?
Accepted Terms: Accepted
Dear Texas
Thank you for your email to Newsround. The article you are referring to
is an old guide that we thought had been purged from our system.
It is my understanding that it was written on the day of the attacks
back in 2001. I agree that it is inappropriate and it is now being taken
off the site.
In addition to this, I have asked staff to do a thorough search to
ensure the guides that remain online are accurate and objective.
I am genuinely sorry that this article has appeared and that it has
caused offence,
Best wishes,
Sinead Rocks
Newsround Editor
Sep 13, 2007 - 9:06 am 6. lisa:I’m actually based in London and this couldn’t be more true-the BBC have a responsibility to tell the truth, being the country’s biggest broadcaster, and this is shameful. Channel 4 has been far more responsible…
Sep 13, 2007 - 10:06 am 7. Darin:Explaining anything to children or anyone not up the curve on any subject matter has always been self-serving, not only for the BBC, or terrorists but also America as well. We tell our children the way WE see history and the way we want others to see it. The winners write the books as we all know. My American history book is written a bit different than the native american history (Mr. Zinn’s mission) book or the russian history book. People all have different ways of explaining the lives of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and even John Smith. There are probably more accurate ways to explain events to children, but we are flawed and selfish people and we will always tell our children the way we see it. Our country is built on freedom of expression. If someone is out explaining 9/11 in a way that you dont like, sorry.
Sep 13, 2007 - 10:18 am 8. Jay:They took back the apology and put the same page back up.
Sep 13, 2007 - 12:29 pm 9. schnargley:They were like, 19 bright, students from..umm..various countries who were…ummm…upset at you know, Republicans and global warming and stuff you know..so like, you know they just felt like, “Hey, we gotta do sumpin, ya know guys?”…to do something against, you know, imperialistic capitalism and , you know Republicans, Americans, whatever, who like invaded their lands, like Halliburton and stuff, and like, walling in those Palesyinians like a Warsaw ghetto and starving them, blowing up Hiroshima..stuff like that, ya know. Like, we all have our limits as to what we can take dude.
Sep 13, 2007 - 12:54 pm 10. Larry Sheldon:Another way to tell the story:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/171
Sep 13, 2007 - 1:28 pm 11. ronbo:Here is my contribution:
Thank you for your email to Newsround. The article you are referring to
is an old guide that we thought had been purged from our system.
It is my understanding that it was written on the day of the attacks
back in 2001. I agree that it is inappropriate and it is now being taken
off the site.
In addition to this, I have asked staff to do a thorough search to
ensure the guides that remain online are accurate and objective.
I am genuinely sorry that this article has appeared and that it has
caused offence,
Best wishes,
Sinead Rocks
Newsround Editor
—–Original Message—–
[personal details omitted]
Comments: Blaming the attacks of 11 September on the USA’s middle east
Sep 14, 2007 - 8:21 am 12. Morton Doodslag:policies is nothing short of disgusting. To foist that vile propaganda
on young children contemptible.
Accepted Terms: Accepted
This isn’t just on UK public broadcasting — here’s another example, not directed at children per se, but uttered mere days ago on Danish National Television, Sept. 11, 2007. These comments are made by a ‘gentleman’ named Jens Blauenfeldt — apparently a regular host on this show. What comes from his mouth is staggeringly ugly and emblematic of MANY in the Euromedia. This kind of rank hatred is not uncommon today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlOFU1-vga8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Flittlegreenfootballs%2Ecom%2Fweblog%2F
Check it out.
Sep 14, 2007 - 9:09 pm 13. Dave Surls:“Bullying often starts when people pick on something about you that’s different.”
“It could be how big you are, the colour of your skin, or how you’re doing at school.”
“But no one’s the same - and that’s why bullying is so stupid.”
That’s from the BBC guide on bullying where they demonstrate that they do understand how to teach young children.
Terrorism is a lot more stupid, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the BBC to teach little kids that.
This is not a suitable site for small children. The BBC folks
know how to teach, but not what to teach, and until they can bring themselves to say that terrorism is stupid, I wouldn’t let my kids waste a lot of time here, unless I wanted kids who understood that bullying is wrong but deliberately flying small children into the side of a building is value neutral.
You teach small children basics, and values, not the ins and outs of international politics, which they can’t possibly comprehend (especially when it’s the watered down pap presented on the BBC site). That’s way over the heads of elementary school kids, but right and wrong isn’t.
The BBC presentation for children on 9/11 and other aspects of terrorism was unacceptable then, and it’s still unacceptable.
Sep 15, 2007 - 4:42 pm 14. Dave Surls:“Bullying often starts when people pick on something about you that’s different.”
“It could be how big you are, the colour of your skin, or how you’re doing at school.”
“But no one’s the same - and that’s why bullying is so stupid.”
That’s from the BBC guide on bullying where they demonstrate that they do understand how to teach young children.
Terrorism is a lot more stupid, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the BBC to teach little kids that.
This is not a suitable site for small children. The BBC folks
know how to teach, but not what to teach, and until they can bring themselves to say that terrorism is stupid, I wouldn’t let my kids waste a lot of time here, unless I wanted kids who understood that bullying is wrong but deliberately flying small children into the side of a building is value neutral.
You teach small children basics, and values, not the ins and outs of international politics, which they can’t possibly comprehend (especially when it’s the watered down pap presented on the BBC site). That’s way over the heads of elementary school kids, but right and wrong isn’t.
The BBC presentation for children on 9/11 and other aspects of terrorism was unacceptable then, and it’s still unacceptable.
Sep 15, 2007 - 5:21 pm 15. Robert:Strange when you take 9/11 down to a level kids can understand, “bad evil people that we have to slaughter” just doesn’t cut it.
Sep 17, 2007 - 1:09 pm 16. christopher:why is my dad sow mean to me
Aug 20, 2008 - 1:21 pm 17. christopher:bgf
Aug 20, 2008 - 1:22 pm