9/11 used to educate youngsters

8:58am Sunday 14th May 2006

THE September 11 terrorism attacks of 2001 are being used as an educational tool in schools in Waltham Forest.

An education pack called 9/11: The Main Chance has been rolled out to secondary and special schools as a set of interactive CDs and worksheets.

The attacks are used as a backdrop to the pack, which also looks at issues such as Afghanistan, human rights, war, the United Nations and voting.

A picture showing the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the Twin Towers, Ground Zero, is used on the front of the pack, on the CDs, the information book and on the notepads.

It also contains worksheets that ask pupils to imagine they are making a film about 9/11 and to use information about the attacks to make a storyboard or comic strip of what happened.

Another task is to find another five places in the USA the terrorists could have selected to attack.

The pack, funded by the borough's Neighbourhood Regeneration Fund, was created by Tim Window of The Davies School, a pupil referral unit in Vicarage Road, Leyton, with the help of Peter Kholer of William Morris Special School in Folly Lane, Walthamstow.

It has been used in the Davies School since 2003 as a way of engaging children disenchanted with conventional teaching methods with the aim of teaching citizenship, raising challenging questions and stimulating pupils' interests in politics and current affairs.

Asked if he thought 9/11 was a suitable topic for pupils, Mr Window said: "Citizenship is an important subject. Using the pack we are not preaching to them about what to think about these subjects but bringing impartial and unbiased information to them.

"It is not culturally insensitive but deals with issues like racism and landmines sensitively.

"A lot of these children were just ten when 9/11 happened and now they don't remember that much about it. It is a matter of explaining something that happened in their lifetime and letting them make sense of it.

"It has definitely worked well at the Davies School as it caters for pupils of all levels, mainstream or not."

Flash Wilson, the web designer who worked on the project, said that while some people might think the content could be controversial, she thought it had been written sensitively but that it was also meant to be challenging.

Ms Wilson said the design on the front of the pack had been changed to the current picture shortly before the packs were printed.