Loose Change

Today, being September 11th, is a good opportunity to talk with students about what happened on this sad sad day in America's and the world's history. My lesson today was pretty simple, some silent reading and then a journal about 9/11. I asked the students to write about their thoughts, reflections, emotions, what they remember, how it affected them personally. I was suprised by much of what they said.

Some kids said they feel it didn't really affect them. These kids were 12 when it happened. They saw the news in the morning, thought, "that's sad", then went outside to play. You can't blame them for this. They were kids afterall. But what saddens me is that I had to have a real talk about how it did and always will affect them. I discussed how their travel experiences will never be the same, that the date of 9/11 is not only in their own history books (a pathetic one page I must add), but their kids will learn it. This day has added levels upon levels of hate and mistrust not only in America but throughout the world. I think it's so important that kids see this and acknowledge it.

What shocked me however, was how some kids, rather than acknowledging it were telling me it was all fake, set up by the government. When I dug deeper to find out where they got their information, I discovered that their history teacher showed a film today that I think is not only disturbing but tasteless on this day of memorium. Their teacher showed, "Loose Change" in class. This was the lesson! I am perturbed by this. I went home and did a search and found the video on Google. This video is all about this huge government conspiracy plot and cover up about EVERYTHING having to do with this day; including a claim that no terrorists were involved, that there is no evidence a plane crashed into the Pentagon, that all the people on the planes are perhaps still alive and safe hidden in some mysterious NASA location. They claim that flight 93 was diverted to Ohio and all the passengers were basically kidnapped, that the phone calls to their loved ones were fake cloned voices. OY...I have to stop, you can see where this goes.

The bottom line for me is this.
1. This is a day of memorium and should have been treated as such.
2. A teacher is in a special position of power and must act responsibly.
3. Acting responsibly includes providing ONLY factual material in a history class and if a teacher is going to present an "alternate" theory of what happened, that they do so with a contrasting and equal medium. In other words, if this teacher chose to show this video, why didn't he mention or show the other side?

I can't change what another teacher chose to do, but what I can and did do was let students know that they must think for themselves. That when they hear "conspiracy theory" they need to listen with caution and ask themselves how realistic, how plausible is it. I can say that I'm glad I was there to hopefully remind them that just because someone is a teacher, that doesn't make them right, including me. :)