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09/10/2004:

"Group Honors Curricula that Explore 9/11's 'Root Cause'"

MILWAUKEE, WI - Call it the Chips Ahoy! School of International Studies: Fifth-graders at Fratney Street School in Milwaukee learn about causes of terrorism with a small bag of cookies and a large map of the world.


Bob Peterson teaches students that overpopulation and poverty help make it easier to recruit terrorists for attacks like those on Sept. 11, 2001.

Schools have been teaching about Sept. 11 since that morning nearly three years ago, but this year, Families of September 11, founded by victims' relatives, is honoring Peterson and three others for curricula on terrorism's root causes. At a Smithsonian Institution conference today, the group will issue guidelines for educators.

In one of Peterson's lessons, students stand, arranged by population, on a huge world map. Peterson hands out cookies according to gross national products: The 16 students in Asia each get one cookie, and the three in Africa split half a cookie among them. In North America, one student enjoys eight cookies.

Though he doesn't “blame America” for the attacks, Peterson says, even children “can be encouraged to ask deep questions” about the causes of terrorism.

Opponents say that runs the risk of creating empathy for terrorists. Teachers must ensure “that students aren't taking away an overly simplistic view of why terrorism happens,” says Kathleen Porter-Magee of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a think tank that has pushed for more rigorous history curricula. Though students might understand its causes, she says, terrorism is irrational.

Full Article: commondreams.org

This is the sorry state of the terrorism discourse in the United States. 'Poverty' and 'overpopulation' are why 'they' hate us. And why are they poor? Colonial/imperial piracy and pillage. I can guarantee that's not in the 'enlightened' curriculum. And the one advocating the 'more rigorous history curriculum' thinks that children should be taught that terrorism has no cause at all. Poor kids.