Schools

Finding a Teaching Moment in Bin Laden's Death

NNHS classrooms were alive with discussion about the historic events that took place Sunday.

The subject of Osama bin Laden’s death was the topic of conversation in Jeff Bedore’s second period military history class at on Monday.

Bedore, a history teacher, said he expected that his other classes would have as much interest in the subject. The topic wound up dominating the entire class period.

“We wound up having a very wide-ranging discussion with the kids about you everything from how the operation might have worked to presidential decision-making,” Bedore said. “It was sort of all over the map and that is pretty much of what I expected.”

Find out what's happening in Lislewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The kids asked many different questions, and Bedore said he tried to answer as many as possible.

“But the bottom line is my role in the discussion is to point out that so soon after the event you really have to wait until facts come in that we don’t know a lot about it per se other than fact that Mr. Bin Laden is apparently dead," he said. "So that is where we are at.”

Find out what's happening in Lislewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Parents prefer to discuss more difficult subjects with their children when they are in elementary school, said Susan Rice, District 203 director of communications. Rather than have teachers discuss such complex topics in the classroom, elementary teachers defer to parents.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here