Rememberance Day

Rememberance Day is an important day for teachers to recognize and discuss in their classrooms. My grandfather was a fighter pilot in World War II for the United States Air Force and was in the battle of Midway. I am proud of what he did for his country and for me. Students need to be aware of why they have freedom and that other people have given up their lives in order for us to have that freedom. They should know the meaning behind the poems that they recite and hear. I believe that war is something we should educate our children about so they are knowledgeable. As a student of history, I think that it is important to recognize the people that have made the present possible. We should honour them with that moment of silence and teach our children to do so as well.

There are several way that I might do this in my own classroom. I would love to read a story to the students that talked about soldiers and war and the experiences that they had. Also, depending on the age and maturity of the students, you could also watch a video or movie on war and then discuss it. This rememberace day I watched a couple episodes of Band of Brothers. I really enjoy that mini-series because it starts out with the actual veterans talking about their experiences which provides background information for the episode. I love the personal touch that it adds becauase it reminds the viewer that these characters were real people who actually fought and died for their country. Something like this could be used in the classroom to get disucssion going and it could be used to inspire writing or art activities as well.

I also went to see the Passchendael movie when it was released here in town. I actually remember writing a paper on that particular battle when I was in grade 11 social studies. I remembered watching a documentary on it and being horrified. I felt that this was something that we should remember because so many people suffered horrible conditions and violence for a few kilometers of muddy ground. This is the main reason that I wanted to see the movie. I really enjoyed it, and I felt that the battle scenes were very well done, although grusome. I think that it is great that Canada is finally preserving out history on film. So many American battles have been made into movies and almost nothing of our own history so I believe that this was an important step.