History on Remembrance Day

A major premise of Remembrance Day is to take up John McCrae’s challenge to hold the torch high and not break the faith of those who gave their lives in the wars of the past. As teachers, what is our role in meeting that challenge? How should we teach about the war? Should we try to remain objective, teaching ‘just the facts,’ or, should we take a stance, either pro- or anti-war?

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- From John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields”

Dan McDowell, a social science teacher at a California high school, has considered this question on his blog. His goal in teaching about war is to get “students to be able to critically analyze a conflict and make a reasonable assessment. All without trying to sound like a hawk or a dove.” (For more on his approach, please read his post “Teaching War.”) That sounds like a reasonable goal.

No matter what approach is, you will need resources. Luckily, resources for teaching the history of war abound. In a THEN/HiER blog post last month, Mary Chaktsiris identified several digital archives sources for information about World War I. Also last month, Approaching the Past held a workshop called WWI and the Archives, during which the educational resources of the City of Toronto Archives and the Spadina House Museum were identified. Mary Chaktsiris, in another blog post, provided a summary of the event.

Veterans Affairs Canada has a variety of educational resources to aid teachers in preparing lessons for Remembrance Week. They offer two main resources. The first is called “Tales of Animals in War” and is intended for students 5-11 years old. It takes the form of a newsletter, and, not surprisingly, tells the story of animals serving in war. This year’s edition is dedicated to the Archway of Remembrance, which is located in the Peace Tower, and is dedicated to those animals that served in war. The second is intended for students aged 12-18, and is called “Canada Remembers Times”. It deals with Canadian Armed Forces missions from World War I until Afghanistan. Special effort has been made to identify the contributions of women and ethnic minority groups in many of these conflicts. Although you may find the Veterans Affairs materials to be a little more pro-war than your approach to the subject, they may help you find new ideas for your classes.

When preparing lessons about war, how have you taken up the torch of the fallen soldiers of war?
What are your thoughts about teaching the history of conflict?