A teacher at Winnipeg’s Ecole Kelvin High School is bringing the importance of Remembrance Day close to home for his students.
Chris Young told 680 CJOB’s The Start that his classes are studying the lives of some of the 2,900-plus Kelvin alumni who fought in at least one of the world wars — almost 300 of whom were killed in battle.
“These young men — and in some cases young women — they lived in the community, and they lived in homes that some of my students have lived in, if you can believe that,” Young said.
“They played sports, they had hobbies, and they weren’t much older than them. … And they went off to places like France and Belgium and Hong Kong and the Netherlands, and many of them never returned. So I think it’s making those connections with young people that bring the past alive.”
Young said the River Heights-area school, which was founded in 1912 as Kelvin Technical High School, has a deep history with both world wars, and students have been digging into the military files of soldiers who went there and who have been reflecting on their sacrifices.
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“I want to convey to my students the impact the wars had on our school. It was just an incredibly traumatic experience for our students and the community,” he said.
“I’m just always amazed and thrilled to work with young people because they buy into it. It’s very meaningful for them. I’d like to think that after they leave high school, that this will be an interest and a passion for them, … that they’ll take their own children to Remembrance Day services and they’ll care deeply about this issue.”
Although he said it hasn’t happened in a few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Young has also chaperoned school trips to Europe where students have visited battlefields as well as the final resting places of the Kelvin alumni they studied.
“Those trips were just incredible,” he said. “I could always see that they made these incredible connections with them and it was so satisfying as a teacher to see them care so much about the past and to take it so seriously.”
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