School reformers often call for critical thinking,
but this means
little if students think critically only when there
are no
consequences. Now, as the nation debates how to
respond to last
week's terror, the consequences are big enough
to matter.
Teachers need answers to questions from students
about personal
safety, about what motivates others to attack us,
about how we
should relate to fellow citizens who are Muslim
or Arab and about
whether civil liberties should be curtailed in
a time of crisis. If
unasked, these questions should be provoked. Few
teachers are
prepared to do this.
On Sunday, I asked high school students in Winter
Haven, a town in
central Florida, to describe how teachers had handled
the terrorist
attacks. This was no representative sample of youth.
All were in
honors classes, members of a church youth group,
with well-educated
middle-class parents. If adolescents anywhere could
begin to think
critically, these should.
But school was giving them little guidance. On Sept.
11, they
watched the attacks on classroom television. In
some rooms the
television watching continued all week; in most,
teachers soon
returned to scheduled lessons.
I asked these students why they thought the nation
had been
attacked. Kelly Powell, a sophomore, said that
she thought it was
because people elsewhere were jealous of Americans'
freedom. Others
agreed.
Erica Lippe, a ninth grader, was upset by images
of Palestinian
children celebrating the violence. Schools have
brainwashed them;
hatred is all they know, she said. Travis Sowards,
a sophomore, said
these children didn't know the facts because they
lacked freedoms we
have.
Many students do not have social studies classes.
Teachers of other
subjects were at a loss to answer questions. Erica's
English teacher
could say only that the attacks stemmed from crazed
hatred. She had
no further explanation.
Judy Joiner, a history teacher, told students who
said we should
"just blow them up" that nobody knew exactly whom
to blow up, or how
to find them. Ms. Joiner unfurled maps to point
out Afghanistan.
This week, she showed a 15-year-old filmstrip of
that country, made
when the Soviet Union still occupied it.
Ms. Joiner is now soliciting student opinions on
whether immigration
policy should be changed. Two days ago, she asked
how they felt
about seeing on television a Muslim cleric speak
at the National
Cathedral memorial service on Friday. She showed
a video on world
religions, with 15 minutes devoted to Islam.
This may be the best we are doing, but it is not
good enough. Until
this week, Ms. Joiner's students had no idea that
Israel was a new
nation. They do not know that any Mideast peace
must be unjust to
both Palestinians and Israelis. These students
were 5 years old
during the Persian Gulf war, and barely older when
American attacks
on Iraq and Sudan caused civilian casualties that
fueled Arab rage.
Teachers need curriculums that help explain these
issues, quickly.
The most pressing question for older students is,
"Will I be
drafted?" They deserve answers about why they face
such danger.
A big need is for materials that help explain terrorists'
motivations. In 1971, The New York Times and The
Washington Post
published what came to be known as the Pentagon
Papers, classified
documents showing that policy makers had more sophisticated
knowledge of Vietnamese motives than the slogans
about Communist
invaders that were publicly proclaimed. Thousands
of lives might
have been saved if ordinary Americans better understood
the other
side.
Critical thinking requires sources with conflicting
viewpoints.
Giving teachers materials that show hostile ideologies
to be based
on more than jealousy does not imply sympathy for
these views. But
we cannot mobilize properly against foes we do
not understand.
Until new curriculums are distributed, teachers
are on their own.
They will have to search for thought-provoking
material, suitable
(or convertible) for students in all grades.
The New York Times Company's digital division has
collected selected
articles from last week for teacher and student
use at www.nytimes
.com/learning/terrorism.
The Web site includes geopolitical analyses
as well as discussions about balancing civil liberties
and security.
The Middle East Institute's Web site, www.mideasti.org,
organized by
former Foreign Service officers, publishes a range
of viewpoints —
some will reinforce and others challenge student
preconceptions. A
site more sympathetic to Arab analyses is www.merip.org,
run by the
Middle East Research and Information Project, which
was founded 30
years ago by returned Peace Corps volunteers. Some
materials may be
appropriate only for students with more advanced
interpretive
skills.
Students in Winter Haven believe that what makes
American schools
strong is freedom to explore alternative perspectives.
Teachers now
have the chance, and the challenge, to prove them
right.
