ICYMI – Blum: Remembrance Day is a time to honour, not divide, Sherazi: Many students see Remembrance Day through their own experience of war

Interesting exchange of perspectives among two persons who often work together:

…Bringing contentious political symbols into a Remembrance Day ceremony is antithetical to these principles. It risks fueling division rather than fostering understanding and detracts from the lessons of sacrifice and freedom that Remembrance Day seeks to impart.

At its core, Remembrance Day is about Canadian values — freedom, respect, and unity. Those who fought for these ideals made unimaginable sacrifices, and it is our duty to honour their memory by upholding those values in our schools and communities.

To do so, we must ensure that Remembrance Day remains a day of solemn reflection and unity. It is not a platform for political statements or a time to import contemporary conflicts into our shared spaces. It is a time to remember those who gave their lives for the peace and freedoms we enjoy today and to ensure that their sacrifices are not forgotten.

By keeping politics out of the classroom and focusing on shared values, we can foster an environment where all students feel respected, included and united in their commitment to the ideals that Remembrance Day represents.

Rabbi Menachem M. Blum is the spiritual leader of the Ottawa Torah Centre. His community outreach work includes interfaith dialogue and workshops that he

Source: Blum: Remembrance Day is a time to honour, not divide

…In the last 20 years, some students have experienced war directly.  I have had the privilege to work in schools with students who have done gone through war; the horrors are unimaginable.  I think that Hobbs’s intentions were not misplaced.

If we cannot find ways to help students understand a broader message of honouring the dead — everyone’s dead — if we can’t help teach students about the freedoms we enjoy because some have sacrificed their lives to provide those freedoms, what common ground is there?

For educators, it is worth remembering that students are seeing modern warfare unfold in front of their eyes in real time on social media. In the most recent conflict in the Middle East, they have watched more than 16,000 children lose their lives. Many are buried under rubble. Others have suffered lifelong injuries, and won’t have access to medical treatment. Will students ponder the fact that 12,000 Palestinians also volunteered to serve in the British army and participated in battle in North Africa and Europe during the Second World War, and what those lives meant in the grand scheme of things?

U.S. historian Henry Glassie is quoted saying, “History is not the past but a map

Source: Sherazi: Many students see Remembrance Day through their own experience of war