My 1st grader came home from school with a picture of a building on fire

[helderheid]

It was on Monday. I asked him what his teacher taught him that day and he proceeded to tell me about planes slamming into buildings and one into a field. They then drew pictures about what they were taught.

Does anyone else find this as irresponsible as I do? My son is 6 . I don't want him terrified to get on a plane! I can see schools discussing 9/11 with the older students and having it in their history books, but my son is 6!!

[Vincardog]

1. The younger they get them the easier it is to Brain wash them

[ComerPerro]

2. Bush is the Reason for the Season

Teach kids about 9/11 at a very young age. The next logical step is to teach them that Bush is their Daddy, and he will keep them safe. After that, the only logical step is for them to be taught that anyone who doesn't like Bush is naturally their enemy and wants them to die.

[zanne]

3. It's almost as though they don't want him to "miss" it.

He was only a year old when it happened, right? It sounds like they're trying to re-enact it for kids that age.

[havocmom]

4. Nazis liked to get them young too

Much easier to warp them

Raise hell! You go girl!

[woodsprite]

13. So do Pedophiles. Both are MOs for this bunch. n/t

[Virginia Dare]

5. Yes, I find it very irresponsible...

and I'd be pretty damned pissed.

Time to start writing letters up the chain I would say.

[helderheid]

17. Sent to the President of the school district, the principle, and teacher:

Subject: Concerned about what was taught to my 6 year old Monday

My son attends 1st grade in XXX's class. So far, he's having a wonderful time. I very much like xxx and am excited about the new year with my son in her class.

I am, however, quite concerned about what was taught on Monday, on the 5 year anniversary of the attacks on September 11.

My son came home and shared with me the work he'd done that day. In the pile of papers was a picture of a building on fire. He then told me about the bad guys who crashed planes into the buildings and how the good guys got control of one plane and crashed it into a field.

Both my family and my husband's family live far away from us which requires us to fly to visit them. I have a phobia of flying but I do my best to look strong for my kids so that they don't inherit this fear of flying. I am deeply concerned about the story of 9/11 being taught to my young 6 year old son. It is an important part of our history and it should be taught in schools (included in history books), but I feel strongly it shouldn't be taught to children as young as my son.

Thank you for taking time to hear my concern.

Sincerely,

[Virginia Dare]

22. Good for you...

I have a six year old as well. A couple of times she's caught images of 9/11 and I've quickly turned them off or put them away. She's been very upset by them and has asked some difficult questions. I just don't think there's anything appropriate about discussing it with any children under High School age.

[Catherine Vincent]

30. Great letter, helderheid.

Let us know what response you'll get.

[helderheid]

33. I sure will!

[helderheid]

35. I GOT A RESPONSE!

Thanks for letting me know. I agree with you. The "curriculum" was not approved by myself nor by the district. I will mention it to all of the younger grade teachers.

[pnwmom]

49. Good for you, helderheid. When people, even teachers, make mistakes

people need to let them know.

Too bad for you and your child though. I agree -- this was not appropriate for a six year old who has barely begun school!

[Catherine Vincent]

75. Thanks for letting us know!

:hi:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

79. What's the teacher have to say?

[katsy]

6. You too?

My son is 5 and his teacher told him of 2 buildings in NY.... fire & thunderbolts (as much as I could understand).

Yes - it's irresponsible. My son told me at bedtime when we tell each other imagination stories. I talked of bouncing green gazooks on strange faraway worlds and he told me of planes flying into buildings.

He didn't want to finish telling me everything because it scared him.

[ronnykmarshall]

7. I used to draw pictures like that.

War planes, ships sinking ...... :shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Your kid hadn't heard of 9-11 before?

I suspect other students were bringing it up in class and the teacher felt it needed to be addressed.

[jobycom]

18. Good point. It was hard to miss that something was happening Monday.

Any kid who heard the radio or saw television or newspaper headlines would have been wondering, and talking to his or her friends. It would be hard for a teacher to not discuss the subject. The kids might be more afraid hearing the stories from their friends than from a teacher who could make sense of it and weed out some of the exagerations.

Still, the pictures are a bit much.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. The pictures aren't a problem at all.

Little kids draw pictures of what they're interested in.

Pooh Bear, monster-under-the-bed, buildings on fire...

Such an image sticks in the minds of little kids as much as it does with adults.

[woo me with science]

31. agree. nt

[pnwmom]

51. I know lots of families that don't have TV's. It would be easy for

their little kids not to have heard about 9/11.

[rman]

65. Apparently the teacher thought that after five years the kids didn't know

what happened that day.
Why else "teach" them that planes had crashed and buildings were on fire?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

77. And how do you know the teachers intentions?

As opposed to other kids bringing it up in conversation?

[peace13]

9. I would take the picture to the teacher

and ask about the lesson plan for that day. I am sure it will be enlightening. Sorry they did this to your child. Peace, Kim

[bigtree]

10. should have been run by the parents first

they need to hear that

[helderheid]

25. Very good point. Something should have been sent home to the parents

[Seldona]

11. I would be livid.

To say the least!

I do not need schools and/or teachers indoctrinating my children, or overriding my decision on whether or not that information is age appropriate for my child.

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. The fundies say

"train a child in the way that he shall go"....

I would describe what happened to your son as indoctrination of the worst sort. I would lodge a strong complaint with the school system. Schools have no right to teach morality, religion and political views. Those lie in the province of parental instruction and, as the child matures, personal choice.

[filer]

14. It's only just started.

Red Ribbon Week is right around the corner. If you use any substance the school system disapproves of, your son will come home and draw a picture of you behind bars.

[jobycom]

15. I dunno. My daughter saw Ground Zero at five.

We went to New York for other reasons, but wound up spending a lot of time around the big hole. She saw the vendors selling books of the incident, with pictures of what happened. I explained it to her in general terms--that planes crashed into the buildings, that the buildings fell. Didn't have much choice, other than lying to her.

It left an impact on her, but not a bad one. She's very concerned about the the "Twin Towers" as she calls them. As she's gotten older (she's seven) we filled in more details, so she knows what happened. Last week she was playing with a couple of stuffed animals friends had given us, and her older sister explained that the animals were "Rescue" and "Rescue, JR," and that they were symbols of the rescue dogs used on 9-11. She put it all together herself, and on Monday brought the two dogs to school, hidden in her backpack. When I picked her up, she was telling other kids what the dogs meant.

I don't know what my point it. I wouldn't be upset with a teacher explaining it to my kids. The pictures are a bit unusual. I would, of course, be upset if the teacher used it for some political speech, supporting either party. But that's me. If you are upset, discuss it with your teacher.

[pnwmom]

53. The point is, you CHOSE to inform your 5 year old, based on your

situation and what you know about your daughter.

Many parents wouldn't make that choice for such a young child, and I think their choice should be respected.

[jobycom]

64. Not really. I didn't expect all of the pictures around the site.

We hadn't planned to go there, we just wound up there. My daughter wandered up to a hawker and was talking to him about the pictures hewas displaying before I even knew what was going on. Might have been better if she had heard it from a teacher.

Also, I really don't agree with your last line. I know parents who say the same thing about evolution, homosexuality, sex education, etc. At some point parents have to trust the trained professionals. Parents really don't always know best. From my experience as a parent and as a child, parents RARELY know best.

[pnwmom]

70. As I said in other posts, my pediatrician, a professional,

always recommended that we keep exposure to television news to a minimum for our young children, if not limit it completely. For the same reason, she wouldn't recommend exposing 5 year olds in 2006 to terrorism that occurred in 2001, Pearl Harbor, the events of the Holocaust, etc.

[helderheid]

71. Couldn't agree more!

[mmonk]

16. Tell the teacher he is too young

to be made as dumb as the teacher.

[Lars39]

20. Slightly OT, but try to find The Children's Story, by James Clavell,

and you will see the similarities. :scared:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

21. Is he in first grade?

Not that it matters very much, but I was just wondering. He could also be in either kindergarten or second grade, too.

I doubt they bring op the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19th to first graders. It's just not something they can fully grasp at that age. I feel the same applies to what took place on 9/11, even with the constant media hype most small children don't really care yet. It really isn't an issue that a young child's brain can process and understand.

I know my neighbors son, who is 5, isn't even permitted in the room when the news is on yet. I'm not sure if he will be by next year, but right now if his kindergarten teacher were to have done something such as that his mom would not be pleased.

I think the teacher was out of line in presenting this issue to such young children. It's should still be up to the parents at that age to explain such acts.

[helderheid]

26. 1st grade and you're right - of course they don't bring up Oklahoma bombs

[pitohui]

52. i bet they do in oklahoma EOM

.

[pnwmom]

54. My pediatrician recommended that we NOT expose our young children

to television news. It can be overwhelming. For the children who watch it every day, it's like they're growing up in constant violence -- and that isn't good for anyone.

[ryanus]

23. Keep them scared

All these kids will know is terror.

[woodsprite]

24. My son is 6 also. I prepped him by asking him did he know

what day it was. I told him that some bad people flew some airplanes into 2 big buildings and the buildings fell down. When the buildings fell, alot of people, some Americans and some from other countries, were killed, so today was a day to remember those people. When he asked if that's what started the war, I told him yes, but now the war has moved to another country that didn't have anything to do with the airplanes. I also told him that important people tried to tell the President that it was going to happen, but he didn't pay any attention to them...

AND that's when he said "That's why we need a new President Mommy, because this one doesn't pay attention."

I agreed, then I sent him off to school. I'd rather do my own brainwashing, Thank-you-very-much!:evilgrin:

As it was, he said they had a moment of silence during the announcements, where the teacher asked them to sit quietly, but nothing else. In my daughter's school they had posters in the hall, etc. They broke ground on 9/11, so it is essentially looked at as a memorial to that day. The road name they chose was Independence and their mascot is a Patriot. She said that they had a moment of silence and then the principal read off names of people that students/teachers knew who were stationed in the Middle East or who had died. This school also feeds alot of highschoolers into the local military academy, so I'm not surprised.

[uppityperson]

27. 2 questions

What was important about 9/11? The horrific images, the people who were murdered, the fear and confusion and terror, what it has been used for? If the images, hey, show all the kids those images.

Is it ok to show these kids, or have these kids been shown, horrific images of OK Fed bombing, of car crashes, of train accidents, of other graphic violence? I know, 9/11 was special, very much so, but why show little kds violent images?

Now, my response. Discuss 9/11, what happened (beyond planes slamming into buildings and thousands ding), what has happened since. That is fine to do, within reason for the age. Don't dwell on it with little kids as they are not capable of processing it to the extent older children are. Talk with the teacher, principal, go to the school board even as this could be not just 1 over enthusiastic teacher, but a failure all the way up. Good luck.

[helderheid]

47. check 17 and 35!

[deaniac21]

28. Jesus Christ, those kids are WAY too young for history!

[Fierce]

36. Hee!

nt

[musical_soul]

29. I agree.

Those scenes are terrifying for an adult. Doing that to a child? The right needs to keep their hands off our kids in the schools.

[uppityperson]

32. Did they get to see videos of Pearl Harbor too?

[Nikki Stone 1]

34. Ok to teach 6 yr.olds violence BUT not ok to teach teenagers about condoms

Welcome to Bushworld.

[seabeyond]

37. i didnt want my 6 year old to know, but it happened and no way

to keep from him

yes they get the info early. now yours to put it in the proper place.

[helderheid]

38. It's not age appropriate, period. He is too young to process this info.

[seabeyond]

39. a lot of children didnt have a choice in 2001 helderheid

nor did my four year old

so as a parent i had to be there to allow and help him to process it. it can be done. i know it. we did it. you dont have a choice either. want to go in and talk to the teacher and tell her the concern.... do it

my kids also had to learn about abortion before their time too.

[helderheid]

40. I'm sorry your four year old didn't have a choice. My son's teacher DID

have a choice. It was inappropriate. I wrote her, the principle, and the president of the school district. I almost immediately got a response from the principle who AGREED it was INAPPROPRIATE to present that kind of information to such young children. Your child didn't have a choice and for that I feel terrible. Our teachers do have a choice.

[seabeyond]

41. i agree..... n/t

[pnwmom]

60. But parents in 2006 SHOULD have that choice. 9/11 is part of history now

We shouldn't have to expose our 6 year olds to knowledge of all the evil that has ever occurred in the world.

My pediatrician recommended that we keep our young children away from television news for that very reason. Otherwise, our children are growing up with the perception of constant, unrelenting violence. And while it is true that there is always violence going on in much of the world, it used to be that young children only had to deal with it when it was directly affecting their part of the world. Now, thanks to TV, kids can be drenched in that violence on a daily basis. And it's not good for them.

[pnwmom]

76. Why did your kids have to learn about abortion when they were little?

Did they run into some demonstrators, or did a teacher bring this up in school?

[pnwmom]

56. I think that if you limit TV it's easy to keep it from them. Unless you've

got teachers pushing it on them.

[Love Bug]

42. That's so inappropriate.

They should have at least warned parents on how they were going to commemorate 9/11 with the different age groups and given you the chance to either have the discussion with them ahead of time or opt out.

I'm 52 years old and have no memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Why? Because my parents and school felt it was inappropriate to scare the bejeezus out of 8 year olds with any discussion of imminent nuclear war. If the "bomb" had dropped would my survival or understanding of it have depended on my being scared half-to-death about it ahead of time? No, it was my parent's responsibility to worry about such things. I learned about the Cuban Missile Crisis some years later in history class.

[helderheid]

45. apparently the principle agrees with us!

[pitohui]

55. oh come on please

sorry i was 4 and i have a very clear memory of the cuban missile crisis

even tho the adults tried to lie and hide what was going on, come on, we're hiding in a damn basement, catch a clue train

it's calling kids stupid to assume they can't see that something is wrong when, hello, we're hiding in a basement

kids know there's a problem when there's a problem, the parents trying to hide the cuban missile crisis (or in this case 911) from the kid is just patronizing and insulting

it's telling the kid, not only is the world screwed up, but we think you're too stupid to deal

i can't believe an 8 year old doesn't remember, you must have been living somewhere out of range of the missiles like california or something!

i mean, come on people!

[pnwmom]

58. Not everybody hid in the basement. We didn't.

Maybe it's because we lived in the midwest. But the point is that my parents were ABLE to keep that worry away from us, and they did.

[pitohui]

62. oh you lived in a place UNAFFECTED by the cuban missile crisis

well you don't have a dog in this hunt, do you?

of course if something happens in the news that is totally irrelevant the parents can keep it from the kiddies

if you think 911 falls in that category, then you are not protecting your children -- your children are protecting you

[pnwmom]

69. My children all knew about this when it happened.

But if I had had a very young child, I would have protected him/her from the constant media coverage as much as I could.

[cally]

43. Do you have older children, also?

Because I can guarantee that many of your son's classmates are sharing what they learned from older siblings or playmates. There is no way that most of them hadn't seen the images and wouldn't worried about an eminent attack. Your son is too young but you can't protect him from the information. I would rather it was discussed in class since I always knew it was discussed elsewhere.

I learned the hard way during the LA riots. I left a conference to come home to my young kids because I was freaked out. The block burning was fairly close to my house. I would wander into my room with the door shut to see if we needed to evacuate. I really believed I had kept it from my kids. They are young adults now and they remember the absolute terror and thinking that the adults wouldn't tell them what was happening. No, I never refused to answer questions but by my actions I was indicating I didn't want to talk to them about it. I would never try to keep my own fear from a young child again. Instead, I would try to explain my worries and what I was doing to keep them safe. I wouldn't let them watch television, but I appreciate that most kids do watch the news that I wish no young child watched.

[helderheid]

44. My 6 year old is my oldest. He told me it was his teacher who told him

about the planes.

[pitohui]

57. cally gets it

when i think now how much time we spent as kids protecting our parents from being aware that we knew what was happening...it just makes me shake my head

[Nikki Stone 1]

72. I remember the LA riots vividly

If you were living in the city, you had no choice than to tell the kids. If you were teaching in LA then, you almost had to address it in the classroom.

If you were living in Simi Valley, I guess you could avoid the topic.

[kineneb]

74. I still remember JFK and I was only 5

in 1963. I was aware of the Berlin Wall, because my grandparents' friends would talk about it. Grandma and I watched all the coverage of the funeral at the time. Children do understand more than we give them credit for.

[StraightDope]

46. That's fucked up...

I would call the local powers that be in your educational system and complain vociferously.
We don't teach small children about WWII, or Vietnam, or the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, why should 9/11 be any dfferent?

Oh, my republican imaginery friend just told me: "9/11 changed everything!!! Terra Terra!!!"

[helderheid]

48. haven't heard back from the teacher yet

[pitohui]

50. are you serious? he didn't know about it?

the child would know about 911 whether or not he was told, i wasn't told about the cuban missile crisis, but guess what, i caught a clue train that we must be hiding in a basement for a REASON

i don't know what to tell you, i think your son always knew, it's part of the culture, and this is his gentle way of telling you that you don't have to keep up the false front and stiff upper lip all the time any more

[pnwmom]

59. Why do you think everybody was hiding in their basements?

Nobody around here even has basements. My family didn't do anything to mark the occasion.

[pitohui]

61. the cuban missile crisis now we'te talking about

i'm guessing you did NOT live on the southern seaboard at the time if you didn't seek shelter and your parents didn't

yeah we were po white trash, so guess what, we were hiding in the basement of people we didn't even hardly know that well, but hell, how could they have slept at night if they hadn't taken anyone in?

it was really a big deal and people who could tried to protect themselves, their neighbors, their kids, and if they were all set, they might take in another family

kind of like katrina i guess without all the shooting

[pnwmom]

67. You guessed right.

I lived in the midwest then. And my parents didn't tell us what was going on.

[rman]

66. Apparently the teacher though so.

I don't think anyone said the kid didn't know.

[helderheid]

68. I make a point of not allowing him to watch certain things on TV.

[Ignacio Upton]

63. Your son has no memory of 9/11 itself

Since, assuming he was born in 2000, would only have been a year old on 9/11. So it's easier for schools to teach it to him from their perspective.

[earth mom]

73. Wow, that is just so WRONG!

I know I would be totally livid about it if it were me because I really object to how kids are being forced to grow up too soon these days. IMO, the carefree days of childhood are sacred!

Damn, our society/country is way messed up! :(

[proud2BlibKansan]

78. Yes that is disgusting

I am an elementary teacher and no one in my entire school spent one minute talking about 9/11 on Monday. We were told by our principal (who BTW is a republican) not to touch that subject. These kids are much too young, especially 1st graders.

I think you should call and complain about this. It really is an inappropriate topic for 6 year olds at school.

[SmokingJacket]

80. That is really, really irresponsible.

Six year olds have no basis for understanding such an event -- no history classes, no psychology, no current events: nothing. You can only present it in the simplest form to kids that age: a bad thing happened, which is what I expect teachers told their first graders on that day.

Either that is a BAD teacher or someone is providing a curriculum... and you know what? I guess the latter. I bet some right-wingers have started developed 9-11 curricula for schools, to get them scared and bigoted and brainwashed young.

[cynatnite]

81. Too young, IMO

I don't see how his mind could grasp it plus all that happened following that day. I could understand talking about it a little bit, but not going into that kind of detail. I would take your concerns to the teacher.

[Ms. Toad]

82. I don't think we do any favors to our children

by shielding them from reality.

JFK was shot when I was barely 7. I watched the news reports of his death, and of the subsequent murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. I remember JFK's presidency, and I am grateful that my parents did not shield me from the reality of his death, or that of RFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr. shortly thereafter. From the same era, I recall "duck and cover" and the root cellar we contemplated using as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear attack. The lives of these individuals, and the tragedies of their deaths had a major impact on shaping who I am today and on the things I find worth fighting for. My political awareness and activism dates, in part, from the discussions I had with my parents about the possibility of nuclear war when I was not much older than your son. Partly as a result of this early awareness, by junior high school, I was challenging the administration in our local school with respect to wearing black armbands and permitting equal access "excused leave" for school day events on both sides of the Vietnam war debate. Any attempt at indoctrination by the heavily pro-war, pro-death penalty school administration would have (and did) fail miserably, in part because my parents had honest conversations with me from a very early age about both the beautiful and the ugly aspects of the world in which we live and about how important it was to live my life with integrity and to work for change.

My daughter, from before she could walk, visited her uncle on death row. He was nearly executed when she was around 8, and because we were honest with her she had the opportunity her cousins did not have to say goodbye to him. (He was apparently going to die unexpectedly from pneumonia, or something, as far as they were concerned.) She wrote her first "political" letter at age 8 to explain to the governor that the death penalty is wrong, and to ask him to please spare her uncle's life. (36 hours before the scheduled execution he was granted a stay, and his sentence has since been commuted to life.)

My daughter is currently a well-adjusted high school junior, with a strong moral compass and much better sense of US and world politics than most of her peers.

Children intuitively know a lot more than we give them credit for. My daughter's cousins could not possibly have visited their uncle, been pat searched and walked through multiple locked doors each time they visited him, without knowing that there was something strange about where he lived. With respect to 9/11, children who have any contact with the world outside their immediate families (where perhaps it is possible to hide all conversations and contact with media) know something is up. Adults are acting strangely all around, any exposure for more than a few minutes to radio, TV, newspapers, or even casual adult conversations would have made them aware that something was wrong that day. In my opinion, they are far better off knowing basic facts - preferably hearing them from you - than wondering what is wrong (and perhaps believing they have done something wrong to make all of the adults around them mad at them).

I don't know how your son's lesson was handled by the teacher - it may not have been handled in an age appropriate manner - but I don't think the subject matter was inappropriate for a 6 year old.

[knitter4democracy]

83. I told my kids about it, and they're 6 and 4.

They wanted to know why I was crying, and I tried to explain it to them as simply and clearly as I could.

I don't know if they dealt with it at DD's school, though, since she was home sick with step that day.