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In Bay Area classrooms, Sept. 11 isn't exactly Sept. 11 anymore.

"Nobody feels the need to show students any more pictures of airplanes going into buildings," said Susan Stewart, who teaches 10th-grade government at Palo Alto High School. "I don't know that it's very constructive for people to wallow in that."

Instead, Stewart and many other teachers have updated their treatment of the horrific events that caused schools around the nation to send students home for safety in 2001.

Today, every ingredient that once made up the driest title on the syllabus -- history/social science -- is packed with daily relevance: war, peace, democracy, civil rights, citizenship, hatred, beheadings, religion and freedom.

And it all stems from Sept. 11.

On the first anniversary, classrooms everywhere imposed moments of silence, organized poetry readings or encouraged students to compose messages on butcher paper so that they might express grief for the victims of terrorism and anger at the perpetrators.

On the second anniversary, there were the moments of silence but only the occasional butcher-paper exercise.

Now, three years and a lot of military bloodshed after Sept. 11, teachers say they are more interested in having students consider the rapidly unfolding events of the day than to dwell on the tragedy.

"To what extent are the events of 9/11 being used as a platform for the upcoming presidential election? To what extent should they be?"

Those are questions that teachers at San Francisco's Leadership High School came up with a few weeks ago as they thought ahead to the infamous anniversary. The questions are listed under the heading "Practicing Critical Thinking," and on Monday afternoon, the entire school will spend an hour considering those and similar questions.

"It's part of our work to make the connection to our larger world," said Principal Gregory Peters, noting that his school sees its name as a mandate. "We define leadership as taking responsibility for what matters most. So we'll repeat the process for World AIDS Day."

Amy Punkar, chairwoman of the social studies department at Jefferson High in Daly City, plans to pose two questions to her advanced-placement U.S. history class:

"What has changed globally since 9/11?" and "What are some of the political consequences within the United States since then?" (Punkar's hint to students reading this -- think civil rights.)

"We're living in a global world now, and there's no way for schools to deny that," Punkar said, adding that in the past, Jefferson has done the butcher-paper thing. But on Friday, she said, a teacher came in and said she did not plan to address the emotional aspect of Sept. 11 this year.

"She was kind of glad not to," Punkar said. "It's easier."

In fact, difficulty in handling the emotions of Sept. 11 has led some schools to avoid the topic altogether.

"We've noticed that in years past, it brings up hurt and pain for some children and for some teachers," said Principal Cheryl Rodby of Montera Middle School in Oakland.

In Alameda, where a number of children from Chipman Middle School have recently lost their homes in a mass eviction, Principal Laurie McLaughlin said the students "are dealing with more immediate issues, and we are choosing to support them and not add any more to their plates."

Elsewhere, teachers are looking for new ways of building global events into their curriculum.

One of the more striking examples took place in Room 201 on Thursday afternoon at Washington High School in San Francisco, where teacher Martin Wolf deftly transformed a discussion of plot, setting and character in "The Lion King" into a focus on plot, setting and character on the world stage.

"In Iraq, we also have a setting," Wolf told the 10th-graders in his ethnic literature class, pointing out that the conflict, complications and climax of fiction are no less present in Baghdad and Washington.

"Yesterday, George Bush said that the 1,000 soldiers who have died in Iraq died fighting terrorism," Wolf said. "I wonder -- did they? Does George Bush believe this? Let's go back . . . "

He then recounted the events since Sept. 11 using slides filled with facts, photos and the vocabulary words "mujahedeen," "theocracy" and "secular."

In perhaps his most dramatic segue, Wolf got the students to step into the minds of world leaders and terrorists, however briefly, by asking them to recall "The Lion King" protagonist (Simba) and its antagonist (Scar) and asking who the corresponding figures are in politics today.

"George Bush and George Bush," said Victor Wu, 15, a born diplomat.

Some students put Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry on one side and Bush on the other, while Wolf asked if Osama bin Laden might not be cast in the role of antagonist.

"All that's missing is the denouement," he said, writing "denouement" on the blackboard.

Later, Gwendolyn Samson, 15, said she found the lesson valuable because she hadn't known that Iraq was not responsible for Sept. 11.

Students like Gwendolyn were his "target audience," Wolf said -- the reason the lesson was important.

"We need to be an informed citizenry," Wolf said. "I'm planting the seeds."