Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Remembrance Day
I think that it is really important for schools and teachers to acknowledge Remembrance Day and from my experience of having students attend schools in the district I think that they do a really good job of this. At my youngest son's elementary school they held an assembly in which family members were invited to. The assembly began with the singing of "Oh Canada" and then the principal talked with the students about Remembrance Day. The principal provided students with a visual representation by showing them a slide show as he discussed each picture. The choir and the leadership classes were also involved by singing songs during the assembly. In previous years, the school has also invited Veterans to the assembly and some Veteran's have even participated in the assembly by sharing stories. I know that there is "not always enough time in the day" to teach students everything that you want them to learn, but it would be great if Remembrance Day could be explored in a bit of depth so that students could learn more about the real meaning of Remembrance Day rather than simply viewing it as a day off.
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2 comments:
I agree with you that time has to be made so that students really understand Remembrance Day and that it is more than just another day off. It is sort of sad to think that students spend the whole month of October almost thinking about Halloween and maybe get a week or less of Remembrance Day. The school I was observing at last year "reminded" the teacher I was observing two days before that there had to be a Remembrance assembly and presentation.
Thinking about war and remembrance could fit into som many subjects like Language Arts, Social Studies or Social Responsibility and even of course Fine Arts in terms of music, dramatic presentation and dance. I think it does our students, and our veterans, a disservice not to place more emphasis on it.
When I went to the civic Remembrance Day Ceremony I heard of a neat project called "write to the troops." This is year round activity where people can send a letter to "any Canadian Forces Member." I was thinking how beneficial it would be to read a story form a child's perspective (I.e. Parvanna's Journey), research what our troops are doing in Afghanistan, and then write letters. This is something that fits into LA at any grade or SS in grade 6.
If you want to find out more, here is the web address:
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Community/Messageboard/index_e.asp
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