The Sept. 11 attacks by Islamic extremists sent educators scrambling for ways to include information about Muslims in their lesson plans.
But more than two years later, with the nation involved in an increasingly violent struggle in Iraq, students' knowledge of the world's second-largest religion remains spotty at best.
"My sense is that teachers never covered it much, and they still are not" doing so, said Susan Adler, an associate professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and former president of the National Council for the Social Studies. "It would vary from state to state, depending on the content standards."
"We do have state standards," said Paul Dennis Dickler, a social studies teacher at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, Pa. "But which students are going to have a major unit about Islam, or a more cursory view of the war on terrorism and Islam and the West, is going to vary from classroom to classroom. That is how things have always been."
For years, the social studies council has recommended that all students learn about world religions.
"It does not mean you have to become Islamic or attend a ... mosque, but you need to know how they think and what they believe to understand them," said Al Frascella, communications director at the council's headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. "That is part of having a well-rounded education."
But because no national standards exist for any subject, states decide what their students should know.
Jon Zlock, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Education, said more emphasis would be placed on Islam and other world religions in an update of the state's current social studies lessons.
"We are including more teaching of Islam in our social studies curriculum that will be dealt with by the state board in September," he said. "We are always trying to shape and change with the times."
More than 1.2 billion people are Muslims, one-fifth of the world's population. Their religion is based on five rules or pillars: belief, worship, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage. Arabic scholars say the word "Islam" is rooted in peace, or "salaam," and the belief in one God, known in Islam as Allah.
At Neshaminy, Dickler covers Islam in the final unit on current events in the Advanced Placement course on American history. Although comparative-religion courses are common in private and religious schools, Neshaminy is among a small number of public schools with that elective course.
"They spend a lot of time on each major religion," he said. "But that is 50 to 60 students out of 2,800. It is not the main place where it might be taught."
Most public school students are likely to learn about Islam in ninth- or 10th-grade world cultures or history courses that cover the Crusades and the Ottoman Empire.
Angelique Israel, 14, of Upper Darby, Pa., said she was fascinated by what she was learning about Islam from her "Peoples of the Book" course at Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pa. The course covers Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
"Now we're on Islam," she said. "It's not only a religion; it's a culture. ... It is actually a whole different world out there that we don't know about and that we don't pay attention to."
Teachers with special expertise often bring more attention to this subject.
"We do a lot with Islam," said Daniel A. Chittick, a social studies teacher at Jenkintown High School in Jenkintown, Pa., who has taken courses on Islam and traveled extensively in India and East Africa.
Chittick, the lead social studies teacher for his district, says Jenkintown's curriculum draws heavily on current events. "Our study has been growing with the situation in the world," he said.
Private schools have more flexibility in changing course content and adding classes. A few years ago, Episcopal Academy added the Koran to its "Peoples of the Book" course. According to religion teacher Tom Rickards, Episcopal hopes to develop additional electives.
Sarah Sharp, a social-studies teacher at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, introduced an elective for 11th and 12th graders this winter called "The Mysterious Middle East."
Sharp had been interested in such a course for some time, but the project was fast-tracked after Sept. 11.
Many teachers, though, are still at a disadvantage because Islam has received scant attention in U.S. classrooms and was rarely covered in any depth, even in college history courses.
"I think there is a hunger there," said Alan Cini, director of student programs at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. "The teachers themselves want to learn about this."
In the last year, both the World Affairs Council and the Marvin Wachman Fund of the Foreign Policy Research Institute have sponsored teacher workshops on Islam and the Middle East.
Last weekend, Episcopal Academy hosted a national conference on Islam for high school teachers that drew more than 200 educators, primarily from private schools.
Penn Charter's Sharp attended the conference to learn more about Islam.
"In order to get through the Middle East and explain it, I have the responsibility of knowing as much as I can about Islam," she said. "And the further I go, the more ignorant I feel."