My children attend Hillcrest Elementary, 4th and 6th grades. They talked about 9/11 last week at school, and came home and asked several questions about our experience on 9/11/01. I welcomed the discussion, and was able to answer specific questions they had at my discretion. Hillcrest honored the the 10th anniversary by taking a picture of the whole school spelling out "We Love You" with their bodies in the parking lot. This picture is being sent to law enforcement/fire departments to express their gratitude for the daily sacrifices they make for our community. Thank you Paula Thomas, Principal, for recognizing 9/11 as a topic that needed to be discussed with our children, and giving them a chance to honor all of those that protect us every day!

I know for a fact that it was discussed in OMS classes...

It was not discussed at my children's school; I specifically asked them about it. If my 6th grader is old enough to discuss and analyze the Holocaust at school, surely they can discuss 9/11. Instead, we talked about it as a family Sunday night as I want to ensure my children understand what happened on that terrible day.

I came home from the board meeting and asked my children - they had all discussed it in the classroom, I believe on Monday. I have 5th & 6th at Kingsley, 8th at Oneill and junior at DGS (different district).
I do not believe this is a decision for buildings to handle separately - it should be district-wide and part of the curriculum. After all it is part of America's history, right? I am sure the district can give teachers suggestions on what materials to use, etc..and there has to be enough out there even for the younger grades.

If the District is uncomfortable opening up the political issue aspects of 9/11 to elementary students, that may be understandable, but there is no reason it can't be mentioned as an important historic event, just like bombing Pearl Harbor, dropping the A bomb, landing on the moon, JFK's assassination, etc.

It's been a long while since I've been in school...is 9/11 covered in history text books yet?

As a teacher, I can say that deciding what to do in a classroom to help students understand and discuss 9/11 is very difficult, especially since the topic can be so political and our country is still at war. Many schools - and I can't speak about District 58's as I teach in District 99 - leave the decision up to the teacher, and some teachers might worry about parent response when such a topic is covered. However, I know that many teachers at DGN do a wonderful job of teaching the subject, and we had a detailed morning announcement and a moment of silence on the 9th.

My freshmen, who were four years old when the tragedy struck, remember virtually nothing of that day. I spent two days in my classroom on the subject, and they responded with a lot of curiousity and are now better armed with that knowledge to deal with our current reality. (Or at least I like to think so.)

I hope the middle schools are covering this topic as well; it's amazing to think about how different our world was just 10 years ago.

I think the larger issue was perhaps glossed over, or at least not clarified in the article. The fact of the matter is that a teacher said that direction came from the District that they were not to discuss or teach about 9/11 AT ALL, citing that the children in DG58 were either too little or not born and therefore it wasn't important to discuss. [That pretty much rules out teaching all history, doesn't it?] This direction came either Friday or Saturday - after some teachers may have already discussed it, or had class assignments about it (not anywhere at El Sierra that I know of, and certainly not at all in my children's classes). The information coming from the District has been: "yes, there was something" to "there was no such directive" to "perhaps there was some miscommunication" to "we had a meeting with the principals and left it up to them as they know their schools and students best." ALL of those statements came from personnel at the District...YESTERDAY. I, for one, would very much like to see that 'directive', or know what was, exactly, said at the meeting between District and Principals. And if, in fact, the principals were left to their own devices, then perhaps the 'miscommunication' was between principals and teachers. I'd very much like to see what that communication looked like - to better find out how there was such a huge disparity between what a teacher said, and what was said last night on public record.

In addition, I suggested at the meeting that DG58 needs to adopt curriculum for 9/11. I know this is not something that quick or easy to do. But it is a part of our American History, and needs to be discussed, in age-appropriate fashion. There is absolutely no reason even the youngest students can't discuss Patriot Day, or heroes, or being bullied. School districts all over the country are dealing with this now - we don't have to reinvent the wheel. There is absolutely no reason that students in the district couldn't have, at the VERY least, lowered the flags at the school (which is required by law on 9/11 - I know, it was Sunday this year, but still....), or planted a tree, or written cards to military or firemen... it's really not that complicated. The way I see it, now that we've brought it to the Board's attention, they have 364 days to do something about it. I hope they get it right for next year.

Cinda summed this up perfectly!!! There was soooo much more at that meeting last night than the article leads you to believe. There was much back pedaling, tail covering, and passing of the buck going on by phone during the day yesterday, as well as in person during last night's meeting from a specific member of the administration. I do know that something is not right, and it definitely became apparent that a directive did go out from the district to the teachers in some form....although folks can't seem to get their story straight on just what exactly that directive said and who it was addressed to. One thing was extremely obvious though....the board had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA that 9/11 wasn't being taught in all of the Dist.58 schools. It was apparent from their reaction that they are taking this very seriously and are going to make sure this doesn't happen next year. Three different board members talked to us independently of each other at the end of the meeting, thanked us for bringing it to their attention, and assured us that they will look into this at great length...and for that I am extremely thankful. The bottom line is this - 9/11 changed our world forever, it is a part of our nation's history and we can't hide from it, and that kids need to know about it in an age appropriate way. We need to make sure we do exactly that.

You can submit a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to the DIstrict to ask for copies of any/all records regarding instruction on 911.

All,

In a follow-up to Monday's meeting, I was informed this morning "District 58 schools were not given a directive in any format from the District regarding 9/11" for the reason stated above in the story: “They know their community and they know their students and they know what's appropriate, so we left that decision totally up to the building level,” Pezanoski said.

So it would seem, then, that directives came from the individual Principals - who the District admitted to have a meeting with?

I'm not sure why anyone would think that this shouldn't be taught...

In my daughter's class at Whittier - 5th grade - they talked about it and the teacher showed a short video. We then had more discussion at home.

To me, the decision that this should be left to the individual schools seems like an Administration cop-out, somehow trying to pass the blame to principals and/or teacher.. I don't believe our Downers Grove community schools are so different that only the individual schools and teacher would know how to teach this in an appropriate manner. Is the administration really that out of touch with the individual schools that they cannot provide guidance and direction? I'm not familiar with what all these administrators do, but this sounds exactly like the type of subject an Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum should be working on. As Cinda said, this may not be quick or easy to do - but it sounds like the type of topic that individual teachers should be given some guidance and parameters to ensure it is covered in an appropriate way.