Twenty-five years ago, Americans woke up on an ordinary Tuesday morning and watched their world change forever. Today, millions of Americans are too young to remember 9/11, raising an important question: What happens when the youngest generation that remembers that day is gone, and the generation learning about it today never receives an accurate account of what happened?
Sept. 11, 2001 became one of the defining moments of modern American history — 25 years later, whether students receive a substantive lesson about 9/11 can depend on where they live. An Associated Press review found that states vary widely in how 9/11 is incorporated into public-school education. Some require statewide public instruction, such as Arizona and Florida, while others leave decisions to local districts. Wisconsin law calls for a special observance of Sept. 11, but does not require schools to teach a specific curriculum.
A jarring investigative report by Colbey Decker found the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has an Islamic library chock-full of books and resources that includes the explanation of the holy Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad, teachings of death for leaving Islam and jihad against America. Compare this with a smattering of 9/11 resources on the DPI page.
Wisconsin school teachers are not ignoring 9/11 per se — many teachers across the state teach it. However, there is no statewide requirement ensuring every Wisconsin student receives a meaningful lesson about one of the most consequential events in modern history.
Students should know what happened, who carried it out, who the victims were, what first responders did, the heroic actions that took place, how Americans responded, and how the attacks changed the country and the world. Students should also understand the aftermath including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, changes in national security (Dept. of Homeland Security + expansion of NSA, TSA, etc.), civil-liberties (Patriot Act + President’s Surveillance Program, FISA court changes), and national debates following the attacks. Students need to understand how 9/11 significantly shaped the country they inherited.
We cannot allow this historical event to be relegated to another box-checking exercise on the calendar where our schools make a “Never Forget” footnote in their daily instruction, then move on to the next subject.
There was a time when virtually every American student grew up learning an wide array of topics covering a broad-spectrum of our nation’s history. It is unclear if students today are taught the complete picture of the transition into the new millennium, such as the dot com bubble + Y2K, 9/11, March 19, 2003 + Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 2008 financial crash and subsequent recession, etc.
These events directly impact America’s youth today, and having this knowledge helps Gen Z and younger generations answer important questions pertaining to our modern political and economic landscape.
Watching the the rise of the DSA pro-communism + anti-America movement infused with radical influencers taking over our youth, (or as Rush Limbaugh would say, “young skulls full of mush”), tells me we are not teaching this subject matter correctly, if at all.
Based on recent national assessment data, nearly half of all U.S. high school seniors perform well below basic achievement levels in critical subjects including U.S. history. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 40% of students scored below the NAEP Basic level, meaning they lacked fundamental understanding of prerequisite knowledge.
Teaching history does not require telling students what political conclusions to reach, but does require giving them enough historical facts to reach their own conclusions and formulate their own arguments.
Racine Offers an Example
There is a powerful example in Racine.
Theresa Erickson, a middle-school teacher at Our Lady of Grace Academy, remembers learning about the attacks while driving to college. She did not fully grasp the magnitude until she watched television coverage at her parents’ home. Today, she teaches students who have no personal memory of September 11.
Erickson has spent two decades teaching the attacks through television coverage from that day, documentaries and resources from the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum. For several years, she has also taken sixth-grade students to the Wisconsin 9/11 Memorial & Education Center in Kewaskum.
Erickson’s lessons emphasize both the tragedy and the courage that followed — first responders running toward danger, Americans helping one another and the extraordinary unity that emerged on 9/12 and beyond. Teaching 9/11 does not have to mean frightening children or turning history into a political lecture. It’s about telling the story fully and accurately, and Erickson is doing it right.
Wisconsin Already Has a Place to Tell the 9/11 Story
Wisconsin classrooms do not have to start from scratch. The Wisconsin 9/11 Memorial & Education Center in Kewaskum was created to remember those killed, honor those who responded, celebrate our nation’s resilience, and educate future generations.
At the center of the memorial stands a 2,200-pound steel beam recovered from the North Tower. The memorial has a Wisconsin connection. Andrea Haberman was a 25-year-old Kewaskum High School graduate, who was in New York for a business meeting at Carr Futures when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower. Her story became central to Wisconsin’s effort to remember September 11, helping inspire the Kewaskum community to create a permanent memorial and educational center in her hometown. The memorial says 18 people with Wisconsin connections died on September 11.
The Kewaskum memorial provides grade-specific lesson plans for grades 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12, field-trip activities and transportation grants of up to $500 for eligible Wisconsin schools and youth organizations. The resources already exist and every Wisconsin student has an opportunity to learn from them.
The outdoor memorial is completely free to visit and sits along the Wisconsin 9/11 Memorial Highway (a designated stretch of State Highway 28 running from the Interstate 41 interchange in Dodge County easterly to State Highway 144 in Washington County).
The World Trade Center steel arrived in 2014, the site was secured in 2017 and construction began in 2019. The memorial officially opened June 13, 2021. It was built through the support of community members, organizations, donors and volunteers and is operated by Kewaskum Remembers 9/11, Inc., a nonprofit organization. Plans have also been announced for a 4,500-square-foot Museum and Community Center with interactive exhibits, educational stations and space for school groups and community events.
Why It Matters in 2026
Today’s students encounter history differently than Americans did in 2001. They learn not only through classrooms and textbooks (or Chromebooks, sigh) but also through TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, podcasts, influencers and algorithm-driven feeds. Political personalities can reach millions of young people without ever entering a classroom.
Young Americans are going to encounter political narratives. The answer cannot be telling students which voices to follow, but providing a thorough overview of our nation’s history and the ability to evaluate what they are taught, which is why 9/11 belongs in the classroom and not Instagram. This decision requires lawmakers, educators, parents and local communities to push for a change in our state-curriculum.
Students should be able to hear competing interpretations of American foreign policy, terrorism, war, civil liberties and the post-9/11 world — creating genuine curiosity while helping students understand the difference between historical fact, interpretation and political opinion.
The issue has now entered Wisconsin’s 2026 governor’s race.
On the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany called for Wisconsin to require schools to teach students about September 11. He also pointed to the shrinking number of Americans with a personal memory of 9/11 and argued that the responsibility to teach its history grows as that generation gets smaller.
We cannot ask the next generation to remember something they did not personally experience and we never took the time to teach them. Furthermore, it is deeply hypocritical to use “Never Forget” as a bumper sticker slogan without the guiding principles to support the claim. Let’s not wait until the 26th Anniversary of 9/11 to make this critical change. I strongly urge all candidates seeking office this election cycle to make this issue one of their top priorities and have it completed before the end of the calendar year.
