Schools put human face on war
Poppies, soldiers’ nameplates hung on 1,500 lockers Veterans are like ‘rock stars’ in one school
The hallways of Loyola Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga have been transformed into a virtual cemetery this morning.
Students have hung cards with a cross, a poppy, the name of a Canadian soldier and the year they died at war on every one of the school’s 1,500 lockers.
“ Even though a lot of students don’t know who these people are, they get to see their names and recognize them. Their contributions are why we’re here today,” said Grade 12 student Zeina Hamod, 16. The virtual cemetery is among a series of activities this month aimed at bringing the magnitude of war down to a human level for students, said teacher and retired military officer Robert Smol. But Loyola also is continually looking for ways to extend the lessons about war beyond the month of November. “ A lot of my colleagues are going out of their way to keep Remembrance Day alive.”
Across Ontario, teachers are adding military history to the curriculum and preparing lesson plans for a time when there are no more school visits by veterans.
“ We have to make the best of what we have left,” says history professor Amy Bell, of Huron College in London, Ont. Remembrance Day was “ the most electric moment all year” during her school days because her principal would stand at attention and cry at the memory of his two brothers killed in war. Soon schools will have to rely on technology to put that kind of emotion behind history lessons, she said. As much as possible, Port Perry High School teacher Nancy Hamer- Strahl tries to put her students together with veterans. But she also depends on the Internet and websites such as The Memory Project, set up in 2001 to connect students with veterans, and the Historica Foundation, which promotes Canadian history, to expand those connections.
It’s individual stories that hit home with kids, said HamerStrahl.
“ When you say 20 million people died it means nothing to a kid. But when you say, ‘ This person lived through this experience and these conditions,’ they take that very seriously,” she said. Hamer- Strahl and history department head David Robinson led a group of 152 Durham public school students to the 60th Anniversary D-Day celebrations in France last year. In two weeks, they’re taking 208 students and teachers to the Hong Kong gravesites of Canadian war veterans.
In both cases, the voluntary trips, which students pay for themselves, were prefaced by months of classwork. The teens were paired with veterans and their families to record their histories. A time capsule of stories and memorabilia collected by the students will be buried in Hong Kong in the same way the last group did on Juno Beach. Although 2005 has been dubbed “ The Year of the Veteran” there’s an anniversary or reason to remember every year, said Robinson. He’s organizing a massive field trip in 2007 that he hopes will take about 3,600 high school students to France
for the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge — one
for each Canadian soldier who died in that
battle.
At Courcelette Public
School in Toronto,
“ Remembrance Day is
probably bigger than Christmas,” said principal Kim MacDonald. But the teaching is as much about citizenship and community as it is about war, she said. Named for a World War I battle in France, Courcelette has a unique connection with a group of World War II veterans who are also former students. The group of about a dozen vets is part of all major events at the school. They come to the reading clinic each week, not to talk about their military experiences, but to help the students with their literacy skills. Of course, the war stories and history come up in conversation, said MacDonald.
Last year, the school dedicated its new playground to the veterans, who helped raise the funds to build it. They come to every parent- teacher night.
“It’s like they’re rock stars. They’re celebrities among the students and the community. They’re very much cherished. It just gives everybody a great feeling of connection to the past, the present and the future,” she said.