9/11 Teacher Loves Trauma, Hates Nuance

I guess in some circles, the theory goes that  the best way to teach kids their history lesson is by traumatizing them.

If the report is right from earlier this month, on the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy,  an El Paso teacher forced fourth graders to draw disturbing images of the 9/11 attack,

The teacher apparently told the students to make the artwork nice and graphic and disturbing.

One of the disturbing pics fourth graders in
El Paso were made to draw by their teacher
Image is from television station KFOX.

Hey, just draw pictures of buildings burning, people trapped, people leaping to their deaths, evil terrorists laughing at the carnage. A nice sober way to learn about the awful events of that day, right?

That'll teach them to remember the terrorist attack.  And develop a nice sense of incoherent hate, instead of targeting the anger against the world's dangerous terrorists.

Just put the youngsters in the shoes of the people who had to jump from the buildings as they were engulfed in flames, then fell.

And then tell them the kiddies this:    "The Afghans did this because they hate all of us and want to kill us all,"

A parent, Ivie Gremillion, said she can't understand why the fourth graders just couldn't have gotten a straight forward lesson on the day.

Television station KFOX reported a few days after the incident the unnamed teacher is now on paid administrative leave.

While Gremillion said she was outraged by the assignment, she certainly wants her daughter to learn everything she can about 9/11 as it was an important part of American history.  She just wants it all to be age appropriate, and put in perspective.

Gremillion especially wants kids to understand that while the terrorists who did this were pure evil, certainly not everyone in Afghanistan wants us dead. Like everywhere else, there are good people and bad people in Afghanistan.

Her attitude was pretty nuanced and healthy about the whole situation, which surely will bother the pundits, and probably the teacher,  who insist we all look at things as purely black or purely white. If one Afghan Muslin is a terrorist, they all are, I guess the thinking goes.

And the mother's attitude will surely annoy the wackos who insist that everything having anything to do with Islam is horrible and must die.

There's a lot of talk about how "indoctrinating" kids in schools with political agendas is a bad idea. Fine. Give 'em the facts, and the opposing viewpoints, as long as they make sense. And let the kids learn on their own what is right, what is true, and what is false and what is wrong.

But all that would make the kiddies think critically and ask questions. You know, get well-informed and intelligent.

Or are some groups and ideologues too scared to allow smart people to question their worldview?