Today on tour we heard another story and description from Lee Windsor about how the Canadians battled the Germans in a situation that seemed complex to comprehend, if not downright impossible to see a way out of, then Mark Milner would also add in some more tidbits of information to consider. MIND BLOWN. That’s how I felt; how we all felt. How could our troops be faced with such desperate situations, time after time, here in the Netherlands and be expected to complete the job successfully for the most part? And as a history teacher who loves to teach about the world wars and has even been on a previous teacher battlefield tour, how come I have never heard the whole story about the Canadian army here?? The sad part is, because I have heard and read very little on this subject, I don’t teach much about it to my students then either. On this tour, we are always being asked to consider a ‘powerful question’ that we can pose to students to motivate them to delve into an issue and find out more about it. Well, that would be mine – how come we haven’t heard about our story here? I have realized on this tour, just how important a role our troops had in setting a victory up for the allies, especially when it came down to wresting away control of the sea approaches and estuary from the Germans, which connected the vital Antwerp port to the North Sea. Without gaining this area, the allies would not have been able to send in much needed supplies and troops to continue taking the fight to the Nazis. More than 7600 Canadians died in the nine months it took to liberate the Netherlands. So why is this campaign not mentioned much in the history books? Why do we as teachers, not deal more in depth with it? Do we as teachers have our own personal agendas when it comes to teaching material on this time period? Do we like to focus on what we think is relevant? Do we feel that our curriculums are too huge and therefore, we can’t teach everything, so something has got to go? And what about those spanking new textbooks that our schools have bought? Do the publishing companies have agendas of their own, to select what they want to see taught, while abbreviating other aspects of our history? How do we, individually or collectively, pick and choose what’s important for our students to learn about? This makes me consider the historical thinking concepts that we keep coming back to. Whose perspective is it important that we hear? Certainly, the liberation of Holland is an important one that should be considered in an international context, but so should the other ones we hear about as well, like the British or American perspective. Historical significance should be considered too. How do we determine what’s important or significant to share? Is it all about the number of deaths? the tragic number of stories? or the importance of one event linked to the success of another? I guess we must each decide how we are going to approach those questions in our classes; but the important thing is that we ask those questions. On this tour, I have been asking that of myself a lot lately, especially when I already know some of the veterans who fought through the Netherlands. I keep thinking about them as I’m learning here. I thought I had an idea of the war they fought in, but really, I am gobsmacked at how much I didn’t. I now have a much greater idea and appreciation of what they went through. I would like to fix that because I realize now just how important and pivotal liberating the Netherlands was. Thanks to people like Blake, Lee, Mark, Cindy and Allen, who are constantly pointing out the complexity of the situation and getting us to think about how we can bring those complexities into our classrooms. Huh? Complexities into the classroom? Don’t students just want the answer? But it really IS more exciting and meaningful to search out the possibilities for an answer because one never knows what one may find. It’s motivating me to be aware of powerful questions to ask my students. Maybe they too will be mind blown. What a way to learn, eh? Brenda Doud Teacher, Kipling School Kipling, Saskatchewan
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorsParticipating educators and high school students share reflections on their professional and personal experiences during and after the program. Some posts link to the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society's blog, Studeamus bellum causa pacis. Archives
August 2015
Categories |