September 8, 2025
By Aleta Margolis, Founder and President and Elizabeth Cutler, Grants Manager
Listen to this week’s Hooray For Monday podcast for the audio version of this week’s newsletter.
Aleta shared concrete (and evergreen) advice for holding conversations with students in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 attacks on the United States Capitol.
In last week’s Hooray For Monday, I offered strategies for supporting students in navigating uncertainty. It is incumbent upon us not to shy away from subject matter that feels complex, complicated, or controversial.
Immediately after the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol in 2021, I wrote an article for ASCD that encouraged educators to make space for conversation around what happened. I know many of us held these conversations with a mixture of uncertainty and understandable concern about addressing the politics and violence of the day. But these conversations were necessary; students saw the event unfold—on social media, or here in DC, with their own eyes. And they deserved our support in processing what was happening.
As you will read in the essay she shares with us this week, my colleague Elizabeth Cutler remembers the impact her teachers had in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11. Her teachers, who were as rattled as we all were on that day, created an opportunity for Elizabeth and her high school classmates to reflect on and understand the context of the moment. This experience has stayed with her 24 years later, and it’s a powerful reminder of the positive impact we can have when we choose to engage with our students around difficult issues.
Grants Manager Elizabeth Cutler still recalls how a high school teacher helped her feel validated and valued in the aftermath of 9/11.
It’s exactly one week into my freshman year at Radnor High School.
I’m learning to navigate the fine art of showering and changing after swim class and getting to my next class in barely ten minutes.
“A plane hit the World Trade Center,” a classmate tells me as I rush into the classroom just as the bell rings—and just as I realize that everyone, including the teacher, is glued to the TV.
“That’s in New York, right?” I hear myself ask as a single drop of cold water drips down my back. I’m suddenly acutely aware of the chlorine scent emanating from my pores. Nobody answers my question.
Throughout the day, the gravity of what happened hits me again and again: Teachers hug each other in the hallway. Nobody stops older siblings pulling younger siblings out of class.
My social studies teacher Mr. Wright explains what context he can reasonably piece together on an hour’s notice. In the weeks that followed, he shifted the curriculum altogether in light of what had just happened. He gave us context on the geopolitics of the attacks and even more importantly, he gave us space to process.
I am grateful to Mr. Wright for creating that space for us to discuss, process, and learn together as the young adults we were already becoming. Unsurprisingly, even as school got back to normal (or rather, a new normal), the terrorist attacks and the ensuing US invasion of Iraq became dominant themes throughout my high school experience, both in the classroom and out.
Having experienced firsthand how vital it is for young people to have room to engage with pressing current issues, I believe fully in Inspired Teaching’s approach to teaching students. If youth do not have opportunities to learn how to be in dialogue with one another — really talk, and really listen — then why should we expect them to grow into adults who are to be able to do so?
My memory of the details of what we discussed during those initial weeks in Mr. Wright’s classroom is mostly fuzzy to me now. What I do remember is the sense of feeling invited into vitally important conversations and questions, and how different it felt from the many other situations where I was treated as if my experiences with seismic world issues were irrelevant. Teenagers know when adults are dismissing their experiences, thoughts, and feelings. It doesn’t feel good, and certainly doesn’t cultivate the critical thinking skills that are vital throughout our lives.
91% of students who experience Inspired Teaching’s approach say that the model is more engaging than a typical class. 91%! All students, no matter their zip code or socioeconomic background, deserve to feel invited into such an experience. It’s part of why I vividly remember so much of my post-9/11 experience in school, and why I believe so fully in the work we do with students and teachers.
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Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication of Center for Inspired Teaching, a social change nonprofit organization that champions the power of curiosity and is dedicated to transforming the school experience from compliance-based to engagement-based. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
