Learn more about 9/11: Attacks are part of identity, a lesson in racism in Canadian classrooms

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Most undergraduate students taking a course in Canadian military history at the University of Calgary have never known or cannot remember a world before September 11, 2001.

David Bercuson, associate professor in the university’s history department, says educating successive generations about the events that led to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States has been odd.

“They take it in stride. But I think they think, ‘OK, well, you know, it’s like the invasion of Normandy,’ Bercuson says.

“The hardest thing about teaching this kind of story to students is making them feel. Books (are) something anyone can absorb. But what was it like for the people who were there? “

Bercuson says 9/11 not only transformed the way teachers educate their students, it also changed their own perspectives.

Retired Edmonton high school teacher Robert Gardner, who contributed to the Canadian Social Studies textbook, agrees.

“In the hours and days immediately following the attacks, I would be removed from what had been a relatively comfortable and familiar teaching practice in a much more demanding and complicated situation,” Gardner wrote in the book.

“I found that I needed to greatly expand my knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of world history, cultures and religions.”

Gardner says in the book that memories of the 9/11 hijackings and suicide bombings are vivid. And the lives of the more than 2,200 students he taught after that day have also changed.

Lively and divided class discussions on the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan took place among students from all over the world, including India, Africa and the Middle East.

“September 11 was such an important event that everyone had an opinion or a question,” Gardner says in the book.

“What started to happen was a real dialogue between students from various backgrounds about how they saw the world as a whole. Who were the “good guys” and the “bad guys”? What did justice mean in a world of militarism, terrorism and oppression? What things in life was it worth fighting for? “

The attacks have altered high school curricula across the country and are a key piece of analysis for high school and post-secondary history and politics students.

For example, Ontario students enrolled in Grade 10 Canadian History are expected to assess the importance of post 9/11 government policies to different non-Indigenous groups in Canada.

These students are then encouraged to write a poem or rap about the war in Afghanistan or to write a blog about border security since September 11.

As hate crimes increased after September 11, Ontario’s education minister said racism has also become a part of the school curriculum.

“In June 2021, Ontario announced its intention to invest in a plan to tackle Islamophobia in publicly funded schools,” said Caitlin Clark, spokesperson for the Minister of Education of the ‘Ontario, Stephen Lecce.

“These resources will provide information on Islamic practices, values ​​and misconceptions, the root causes of Islamophobia and ways to help end Islamophobia, racism and discrimination.”

The effects of 9/11 is something Bercuson says he’s trying to get his students to try and figure out for themselves.

“There is a lot of noise out there all the time. People listen to the radio, they watch the internet… all kinds of intelligence agencies at different points in history are trying to find out as much as they are going to come up with.” , says Bercuson.

“I want my students to know that governments might have known about (the attacks).

“If they had known, things would have turned out differently. It’s more of a lesson in how we deal with future conflicts.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 8, 2021.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of Facebook and the Canadian Press News Fellowship.

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