I think people can be forgiven for thinking it wasn't a real event. It's impossible to show, or even really speculate, that it gave rise to any butterflies that would be discussed in regards to politics, social issues, etc. IOW it's just a stand-alone issue, interesting only in connection with itself. I can't even really see how you'd justify including it on a school curicculum, to be honest.
And these days, the James Cameron movie is probably referenced more than any scholarly treatment of the event.
When teaching 7th graders (13-14 yo) I actually used clips from 1997 "Titanic" movie as well as the story of the actual trip. The event is known even by junior teens, particularly by teenage girls but boys too, so it was good to display and investigate many things, such as status of world communications ca. 1900, steel, steam power, class divisions, role of men and women, Finnish emigration to the US, history of conspiracy theories, what kind of events are highlighted in popular history, inaccuracies in movies (such as perfect haircut and make-up which girls always point out), history of film (by showing different clips from different movies) etc.
It's also a story pupils from various cognitive levels enjoy, whether for sheer sake of action or more refined nuances of the background.
So, while the event itself is not important enough for school curriculum, it is a magnificent magnifying glass to use with the pupils to take a view on pre-WW I Europe (& America). If I had used less known examples to display the same themes I would have had to spent more time for the examples to actually make sense.
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