The long weekend that ended yesterday did very little to catch me up on the massive amount of work I SHOULD have done over the past few weeks. I'm kinda-sorta caught up, but knowing my limited abilities in the organizational department, I really should have done more. I did some marking, had my lesson plans relatively established, and had a couple good classes today. They could always go better, but they were generally sucessful.
Speaking of the weekend, I do have to say that I encountered some disappointment. Now, I'm sure that many people recall the Remembrance Day Ceremonies in school, and the obligatory video that most Canadian schools showed. When I was in elementary school, we watched one that featured real WWI and WWII war footage and events that were set to the music of our all-Canadian icon, Bryan Adams. I attended while supervising a class for our Social Studies department head, and was dismayed to find out that, yes, in 2006, a solid 18 years after entering elementary school, students were still watching the same video that I did!
My biggest issue was related to the tone of the music to which this war footage was set. Adams was rocking out, the song was relatively upbeat, and you might even get inspired if you heard it on the radio. As we get older, there are fewer and fewer veterans around, and more and more kids are growing up without any knowledge of the wars... their grandparents or great-grandparents aren't alive or weren't alive to experience the wars, and we're becoming more detached from the events all the time. In that Remembrance Day video, Bryan Adams rocks out while soliders are being shot dead. DEAD. And a big guitar solo blares through the speakers. Those were real men dying, and although the students were generally silent as they watched the videos, I don't think that they understood that those men dying in the video footage may have been their age... 15, 16, 17 years old. I don't think they even understand that 8mm film was used to shoot a good deal of the footage, or what impact the lack of technology had at the time. Those men were dead. Stone dead... from a nearby explosion or a high-calibre rifle.... it wasn't simply a recreation or comic imitation.
The Globe and Mail ran an article last week discussing the issue of whether Canada would hold a state funeral for the last living Canadian soldier of the Great War. There are 3 left alive. One is 105, and two others are 106. Best-case scenario, these three vets entered the war in 1918 and were AT MOST 17 or 18 years old. If they enlisted early on in the war (although the chances may be slim), they would have entered the war at 13 or 14 years of age. Just kids. These men don't have a great deal of time left, and once they're gone, that's it. As for the WWII vets, these men and women are in (at least) their 70's (born between the late 20's and early 30's) and will be following the same trends. My curiosity is this: what are we to do to make these events more meaningful to our kids? I have my grandparents who lived through and (on my dad's side) escaped Europe after surviving the war to come to Canada. But as this older generation passes on, who will be left to carry that torch?
Ask yourself that question the next time you see a poppy.
- T
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