Flavor du Jour

The NEA has provided a website and lesson plan to guide teachers in discussions on 9/11. The lesson plan has been receiving criticism from many groups, including the FEA, for making it sound like America was to blame for the 9/11 attacks. It suggests talking about the history of American intolerance (as if we don’t ram that point home enough in school and the media) and to not assign blame because blame is often hard to assign in terrorist attacks. Never mind the fact that we know who was behind it, and they’ve accepted responsibility for it. This lesson plan does nothing but teach our children to hate this country. It also serves to further our societies sick habit of not putting blame where blame is due. Oddly enough, instead of us blaming someone else for what we did, we’re attempting to blame ourselves for the actions that someone else planned and carried out. Al Qaida is responsible, regardless of whatever “atrocities” people claim the US did to bring the attack on. The US did not make or carry out the decision to attack and murder thousands of innocent people and terrorize a nation. So not only are kids taught to blame someone else when they do something bad or stupid, but now we’re also teaching them that when something goes wrong on the national level (or even worldwide), just blame the US because it’s probably our fault anyway.