The Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a nonprofit charity organization founded in the wake of 9/11, announced this week that it is launching a new endeavor to ensure that future generations never forget.
The Tunnel to Towers 9/11 Institute was launched this week ahead of the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with the goal of educating K-12 students about the events of 9/11, as most students today were born several years after the attacks.
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The Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which provides mortgage-free homes to military families and the families of first responders killed or wounded in the line of duty, was founded by Frank Siller, whose brother, New York City fireman Stephen, was killed responding to the fires at the World Trade Center.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Siller said an increasing number of young students today “don’t understand the gravity” of 9/11, and many don’t even know that it happened, something that he expressly blamed the education system for.
“It’s the fault of the schools that are teaching things they shouldn’t be teaching instead of things about our history and American history, which is what happened to us on [9/11],” Siller said. “There’s only 16 states right now in America that currently require that it’s even just mentioned.”
The 9/11 history curriculum is a robust K-12 unit-based program that will provide teachers with the tools to tell the history of the attacks and the stories of the first responders and survivors in an age-appropriate way, Siller explained.
“It’s appalling that it’s not being taught. … It should be mandatory in every school,” Siller said. “Since we made the announcement, I can’t even tell you the countless teachers that are reaching out to us and downloading the curriculum. … The more we talk about it and the more we get the word out there, more and more teachers will take it upon themselves to teach the stories of 9/11.”
The institute’s website says the curriculum was “developed by educators within the 9/11 community” and is “based on non-fiction, true accounts of the day and include social studies lessons, learning activities and background for instructors to ensure ease of implementation.”
The curriculum was developed with the help of Kristie Kiernan Bouryal, the author of the Discovering Heroes Series, a trilogy of children’s books that tell the stories of 9/11 heroes.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Bouryal noted that so many children experience the effects of 9/11 on a daily basis but have little idea how it changed their life.
“You can’t drive up to a federal building, you can’t walk through security at an airport — put on a TV show, they’re talking about 9/11,” she said. “To deprive children of understanding 9/11 is to deprive them of understanding the world around them.”
Bouryal said the goal of the curriculum is to help educators overcome obstacles often associated with the teaching of 9/11 history, including concerns that discussing the events can be “scary” for young students.
“What we’re doing with the curriculum is we’re offering full, comprehensive, curriculum units about 9/11 for K-12 … so teachers of all ages, all backgrounds can feel comfortable picking up and teaching them materials,” Bouryal said. “We are creating engaging, emotive first-person videos so that kids can hear how people felt, hear what they saw, see the emotion on their faces as they recount their experiences from that day and the days that followed.”
In addition to lesson plans for teachers, the curriculum includes video testimony from 9/11 first responders and survivors, as well as a speakers bureau for schools to hear from survivors and family members of victims of the attacks. The institute also features a traveling exhibit staffed by 9/11 firefighters who volunteer their time to accompany the 83-foot tractor-trailer around the country.
The foundation’s work is entirely supported by donations, Siller told the Washington Examiner, adding, “We can get all this done because of the goodness and generosity of Americans.”
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Siller said anyone interested in supporting the mission of the foundation is invited to donate $11 per month. The foundation hopes to provide 21 new mortgage-free homes to families to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the attacks.
