At Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln they’ll discuss loss, at Hermon High School they’ll talk about conflict, and at Isle au Haut Rural School they’ll reflect on heroism.

Students across the state will mark the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks today when teachers use the dramatic event to launch a variety of lessons.

Younger pupils will write poems and stories about hope, peace and freedom, and draw pictures of flags and parades. High school students will look at more serious issues, including how to do the right thing in the face of injustice and what causes terrorism.

Many schoolwide memorials have been scheduled with patriotic songs, tree plantings and flag-raising ceremonies.

But Caribou High School social studies teacher Allison Ladner said the anniversary provides “a teachable moment” that begs to be capitalized on during class-time discussions about patriotism, courage and community.

“What a great way to learn how to be a citizen in this world – to be tolerant, to be human, to be forgiving, to be angry and to move on,” said Ladner, the school’s civil rights team adviser.

Mattanawcook Academy English teacher Barbara Pincus considers Sept. 11 a golden opportunity to have her American literature students think about how people react to death.

She’ll refer to poems by Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman and ask students to write their own poems that “acknowledge that loss is a human condition we all experience differently … and that how we accept and deal with it defines our lives.”

Chad Boucher, an English teacher at Hermon High School, said he’s been talking to his seniors about how they deal with conflict in their lives.

Today students will carry that one step further and evaluate how the United States handled the Sept. 11 incident and whether they would have dealt with it in the same way, Boucher said.

Judith Jipson, principal of the one-room school in Isle au Haut, said it had been a challenge to come up with a writing assignment for eight children who span grades two through eight.

She ultimately decided to “come at it from a positive approach and [have students] talk about heroes who are involved in their daily lives,” she said.

It seemed only natural for sophomore economics students at Wisdom Middle-High School in Saint Agatha to discuss how Sept. 11 and the war on terrorism affected the airline and travel industries, said teacher John Woodward.

“I want them to understand how Sept. 11 has fueled the weakening of the economy,” he said.

Orono High School social studies teacher Chris Luthin grew up in New Jersey and remembers the controversy 30 years ago over whether the Twin Towers should be taller than the Empire State Building.

Luthin, who lost a cousin in the terrorist attacks, plans to ask his students to discuss people’s “psychological state” before and after the event.

He wants his classes to determine whether their views on travel have changed and if they feel differently toward people from other cultures.

He’ll also ask his students provocative questions such as whether U.S. citizens “bear any responsibility” for Sept. 11. “Are we innocent and unprovoked, or is there something in us that instills hatred elsewhere?”

At Pembroke Elementary School, social studies teacher Carolyn Mahar will ask students in grades five through eight to write a pledge to do a kind deed for someone.

“It’s to encourage them to be helpful and good all the time, not only when tragedy strikes,” she said.

Kathy Crawford’s first-grade class at the Eddington School will construct a paper “kindness quilt” in which children will contribute “a simple visual message of what kindness looks like to them.”

“I think for 6-year-olds it makes the most sense to teach them how to appreciate people’s differences and be kind to people who look and act differently,” she said.

At the behest of the Maine Department of Education, Gov. Angus King proclaimed Sept. 9-15 Maine Character and Citizenship Week. “The period was selected in part due to the national self-reflection on values and community that has been triggered in the aftermath of 9-11,” said a spokesman.

The department also published on its Web site a list of reading materials and lesson suggestions.

But Brian Hanish, who teaches world history at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, said he’s had no problem coming up with ideas.

In fact, the entire week has been filled with teachable moments, said Hanish, who’s discussed with his classes whether it’s ethical to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq and whether Sept. 11 should be a national holiday.

Today he plans to talk to students about how people’s perceptions have changed about the military, patriotism, Islam, foreign affairs and civil liberties.

Pupils in David Fagerland’s English class at Holbrook School in Holden will be asked to “write silently for 25 minutes” about their reflections from Sept. 11.

Fagerland said he anticipates poems, journals, memoirs, “even a letter to the survivors or the victims.”

Byron Lockhart, an English teacher at Skyway Middle School in Presque Isle, has hung on the wall a 15-foot bulletin board that pupils made last year in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

With pictures of flags and national monuments and script from the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, the impressive display should provoke “a lengthy discussion on what freedom means, the cost of securing it, and how we value it as Americans,” he said.

At Mount Desert Island High School, technology teacher Bruce Munger will take a different tack. Since he deals with woodworking and tool safety in his classes, Munger decided to discuss public safety issues surrounding the tragedy – how the skyscrapers withstood the crash and remained standing for so long, and what finally caused them to collapse.

Munger, whose father was a police officer, has a firefighter friend in New York. So he also wants to talk to students about “the technical side of public safety,” and how public service workers dealt with recovery efforts and cleanup.

“I just want to be able to answer my kids’ questions,” he said.