“I am definitely not really sure what’s going on this weekend,” a student told Young America’s Foundation Spokeswoman Kara Zupkus when asked if he knows what major anniversary is coming up this weekend.
Zupkus returned to the sidewalks of George Mason University this week to find out whether schools are doing a good enough job of educating their students about the fateful events that unfolded nearly 21 years ago on September 11, 2001.
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Most students were vaguely familiar with the most basic details of the tragedy, but only a few were able to correctly answer Zupkus’ questions about which terrorist group was responsible for the attacks, and what the terrorist group’s motives were.
“I personally have no idea,” one student said.
“I guess to terrorize, I don’t know, I guess,” another answered.
The final question Zupkus asked each student was whether they think their schools are doing enough to memorialize and educate the youngest generations about the attacks. The general consensus was a resounding “no.”
“They don’t really teach about it, and doing this interview kind of shows me how little I actually knew about it,” a student told Zupkus. “It’s kind of scary, because it was such a huge event that’s still affecting the U.S.,” she continued.
One student was concerned that giving the anniversary too much attention could be harmful:
“I kind of think there’s a big issue of it becoming, like, moral panic in a way to marginalize a group of people.”
We’ve reached the point at which most current college students were not yet alive when 2,977 innocent Americans were murdered at the hands of radical Islamists. Only a portion of the current class of college seniors had already been born–and of those who were, the vast majority were less than a year old. Nevertheless, it is important that students are taught about this tragedy and that they remember the thousands of lives that were lost.
“My generation is too young to remember 9/11, with the majority of us, myself included, born after the attacks,” Jaryn Crouson, chairwoman of Young Americans for Freedom at Michigan State University, told YAF. “Unless we take steps to remember, the memory of that horrific event will die with Generation Z. It is crucial for us to live up to the promise that our parents made: we must never forget,” she concluded.
