Because it's "History live".
There are a few moments in history that shaped the world in "before" and "after". 9/11 was one of these events. Or Pearl Harbor, or Attack on Poland in 1939, Challenger, moon landing, Chernobyl etc etc etc
When you as a teacher/parent know "this will change the world in one way or another", you need to gather the kids to witness that too.
You don't really need to watch a horrific event live to know that it happened though. None of the other things you mentioned needed to be livestreamed to be considered significant events in history. I'm not saying it should have been hidden, obviously, but making kids watch as the towers burn and people jump out of the building so they don't burn to death doesn't seem that necessary
Youre saying that with knowledge of what happened. After the first tower was hit, no one knew what was going on, just the a plane crashed into the WTC, that in itself made it a massive news story.
Then the 2nd tower was hit. Then the Pentagon. Were there 20 other targets? Are we in danger here? In my school its not like they were showing it to 2nd graders. But there was no sense in hiding it from kids that were going to witness it anyway. It was important.
That's exactly what I mean though, if it had been an accident then what would have been the value in showing it to kids? That actually makes it weirder.
And regardless of whether it was an accident or not you're still making kids watch people dying in class. Like I said earlier I'm not saying it should be hidden, just there's quite a lot of distance between hiding something and making them watch it in class
Children, as in middle schoolers and highschoolers were a whole lot less sheltered 25 years ago compared to today. And you are not doing them any favors by sheltering them.
Go ahead and ask anybody who remembers this day in school, like me, and I doubt any of them (or atleast the vast majority) looking back wishes they were sheltered from it. I dont.
Okay but like that's kind of like boomers saying "well back in my day my parents beat the shit out of me and I turned out fine" when like they kind of don't seem like they turned out fine?
I dunno dude I was just asking why it was on in classrooms you don't gotta make it about kids being too sheltered these days
Yes it is a bit like that. But since the time when boomers were raised getting beat, we've learned a lot about better parenting techniques and how hitting your kids is in the long term detrimental to their well being, cruel, and ineffective compared to other methods of teaching a lesson to raise well rounded people.
The answer to your question was, as others have said, because it was a major event that was going to effect everyone and that they were watching for the same reason everyone in the world was watching. Showing it to third graders and below, to pick a grade, would have definitely been weird, though I am sure it happened somewhere.
You kinda sound like someone, who says "There is no attack on the twintowers in Ba Sing Sei" and mean it
Just telling kids that a plane hits a building is an abstract thought. A plane doesn't live, a house doesn't live. Most kids crashed their Lego planes into lego houses. So it means nothing to them.
But showing them.. LIVE what happens, when a real plane hits a real building, is history happening.
Watching a video of it is not "real" real, because of the cuts that were made. But here? Look, there is something burning... see that thing falling, what is that? Bob, zoom in plea... FUCK, THATS A HUMAN FALLING FROM THE UPPER FLOORS!
Kids wil learn, that Death is something, that happens everytime, not in the past and only on video tape
I would accept the flat earth argument if they turned out like that cause they lacked evidence or proof of the reality, but they just say everything is a lie, you could flood every single piece of their media with proof and facts, and they will just negate every one of them
I know you went back-and-forth with someone about this, but I’m one of those Americans that watched it in school so I can just share how I felt.
It did feel important and real and a way that history and politics had never done before. I was 14 or so at the time. I don’t personally know anyone that was upset seeing it, and there were so many people that could’ve had relatives involved and so everyone knew that there’s no possible way in this moment for us to say “ don’t mind that, pay attention to algebra and figure out what’s going on later”.
I doubt they were trying to show toddlers what was going on because they wouldn’t be able to understand it, but adults used their judgment and I am thankful that they let us be present for that moment in my country’s history.
Edit: also after rereading your comment I wanted to be clear that they never MADE us watch it. If someone found it upsetting or just didn’t want to, that was ok.
The real answer is that Challenger was watched live by a bunch of school children because there was a teacher aboard and no one expected it to blow up, and likewise the second twin tower hit was seen by so many people cause then first strike was breaking news but it was presumed to be an accident. They were already watching for a different reason.
I don't think those things are comparable though because something going wrong at the Challenger launch was entirely unexpected and if it had not gone wrong it could reasonably be considered educational, or at least vaguely inspirational. With 9/11 something had already gone wrong when coverage started of the plane hitting the first tower and I think the educational category is harder to apply to that
If you weren't alive then it might be hard to understand, but you could go days and days without hearing any news. Occasionally dramatic things caused everyone to stop and look at the the TV or turn up the radio because the normal broadcast was interrupted with breaking news the broadcaster had deemed important enough that it couldn't wait for the evening news.
Nowadays everything is like this, but in 2001 I heard the second half of 9/11 happen because the jazz station my 5th grade teacher had on was interrupted for special live news coverage of an ongoing tragedy in the middle of the most connected city on the continent.
The second plane hit was entirely unexpected, like challenger.
This is the answer that makes most sense to me I think. Like if something huge is happening now I am definitely checking multiple news sites for updates and compulsively trying to find out everything about what's happening, and I suppose with phones now everyone in class would be watching it regardless.
Like I don't expect the teachers to just have been trying to teach their regular lessons and pretend everything is normal. Just some kids seem to have been very young when they watched this happen
Yeah and we didn't have smart phones so tvs were the only option
In the afternoon at my school they took the TVs out of every class, and instead set a few up in the gym, library and a few classrooms and you could choose to go to class or go watch the news.
It was broadcast on every news channel, and a lot of radio stations. For a lot of people, they NEEDED to know what was happening. I know some of them didn’t want to keep kids out of the loop about what was happening. It was initially believed to be a accidental tragedy, but after the second plane, people genuinely thought it was either the beginning hours of an invasion by our near-peer adversaries, or a mass terror attack that could span the entire east coast
Oh no I totally understand why it was broadcast and why people would choose to watch it for themselves, my issue is more about making a bunch of kids watch it
The teachers wanted to watch it and they couldn’t leave us unattended in the classroom. Also, sensitivity around what kids should be exposed to was way more lax back then. Early 2000’s culture wasn’t as conscious of protecting kids psyche as we are now in 2026.
Plus, at first everyone thought it was an accident, but once more places were attacked they realized it was intentional and sent us kids home.
Tbh I don’t think they gave a fuck what the kids saw, every adult was trying to watch the news and kids were just around. They didn’t force us to watch but if you were in class the teacher wanted to watch and wasn’t trying to hide the tv from the class.
Back then they still had paddles in the principals office at my elementary school and when I was acting up he threatened to use it (he didn’t) so schools weren’t remotely like they are today.
I think consideration for kids came second to a confusing mystery emergency and for teenagers they weren’t going to hide it.
They didn't "make" us. Our teachers were shocked. They were in disbelief. They wanted to know what was going on, and why shouldn't they? If they were watching the news, someone needed to watch the kids, they couldn't just leave us, so we watched it too.
It was a low information environment: the teachers needed the news so they could figure out whether to send everybody home or put the school on lockdown. Kids watching too was mainly because thats how the TV in the classroom is positioned: it faces the class
I spent the broadcast on the classroom’s one computer, making a flash animation
Teachers wanted to watch. Can’t really leave your class to do it so we’ll all watch the “current event”. Then it got really bad and they realized they probably shouldn’t have shown this to little children.
The teachers put it on TV in school in Canada too when it happened, then they sent us home when they got more information. it was extremely important for them to understand exactly what was happening.
The world really did pause.
It felt like if it could happen to the US, then Canada could be next. People thought it was a world war starting. Some of the teachers had family and friends in the US or people who were travelling at the time, and were scared. It was so unheard of and unthinkable. It was really scary. My body still reacts with anxiety right now remembering that day.
Our teachers told us history was happening, that it was an awful tragedy but that we needed to know. I was barely into double digits and they played it in our class, teacher weeping and clutching her hand over her mouth. They said never forget, like any of us ever could.
We weren't "forced" to watch it, my Algebra teach got news of it as soon as 3rd period started and his eyes were glued to the TV in shock. We were free to walk out or do whatever.
So, in the 90's, the US was basically untouchable. The idea that any nation could actually reach us in any measurable way was a laughable concept to most Americans. Terror attacks like this just did not happen. That is why the only time we were ever threatened at all in recent memory was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Culturally, we were in the middle of a progressive movement.
So 9-11 was the millennial generation's version of the JFK assassination, now with even more live streaming capabilities.
Schools shut down and they wheeled TVs into every room because, frankly, this was also a way to manage the chaos that was about to unfold.
When this event was unfolding live, nobody knew what was actually about to happen minute by minute and had no idea who was directing the attack. People talk about the twin towers but often forget that a plane also got dropped on the Pentagon, which was unfathomable. Another plane went down that was suspected of being aimed at the White House and it's not clear if the passengers took it down or the government shot it down. Families living near AFBs and other high value targets did not know if they were in a target zone or if there were be a scrambled response, and now every airport was a danger zone.
I've had this discussion before, but every single cultural regression we've made since 2001 can be tied back to this moment. Everything from the Tea Party to faltering women's rights has it's roots right here. It was psyche-breaking and it introduced widespread paranoia.
For me/my class it wasn't so much 'we' were made to watch it but my Teacher had the TV on mute at the time when it all originally happened just playing the news for her to glance at or what have you thought out the day.
I can vividly recall how she paused midlesson and visablily paled as she fumbled for the TV remote tucked away at her desk. After that the whole class was glued to the teacher and the TV even if none of us understood what was happening or why it was such a BIG deal we understood Teachers don't just shift midlesson so dramatically. And then we all got told we'd be sent home early and regardless of the reason why what kid DOESN'T get happy and excited about that??
Was a genuinely strange af day. Like it was so Normal and then just utterly derailed outta nowhere.
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u/Lisylis 14h ago
I am not from the USA so maybe it's something cultural but I do not understand why so many classrooms made everyone watch this on TV