In My Secret Life

Such a long time . . . so little blogging. I know I've been away, but with good reason. Since mid-September, I've been hanging around my old stomping grounds at Britannia. Two to three times a week, I've been meeting with my old students to put together the School Remembrance Day Service. On November 10th, the services were done and now, I am free to blog again.

So here is a little bit about what my secret teacher life is like. Every Tuesday and Thursday, I would meet with between 5 and 25 students to practice songs and run through scripts. Altogether, 50 students made the service happen. Had I been teaching, like in the past, I don't know If I could have done the service this year. My year off was a bit of a godsend. Normally, I would have taught my classes all day, spent most of my lunch and recess in meetings, had a short 15 minute break and then started running the rehearsals. Often there would be a lot of frustration on my part due to mental exhaustion. This year however, things were different. After school, I usually went home for a little nap, stopped by my local coffee shop, and then ran a fairly pain free one hour rehearsal. I think that not being in the teaching classroom made me a lot more patient. By the time I started practices, I still felt like I had some energy to give my students. And I have to admit the kids were generous with me. Either I was looking at the situation through new eyes, or they were saving their teenage angst for other teachers.

This year's service was extra special due to the presence of Captain Trevor Greene. In March 2006, Captain Greene was attacked by a man wielding an axe while he was in a shura (meeting) in Afghanistan. The attack left him in a coma for a year and he is now confined to a wheelchair. Captain Greene is a good friend of longtime, Britannia phys. ed. teacher, Jamie Overgaard. But his connection to our school and neighbourhood go deeper, in that he wrote one of the earliest books about the missing women of the D.T.E.S. For the past two and a half years, we have been hoping for his recovery. This year Trevor was well enough to travel from his home in Nanaimo, with his wife and daughter, to come speak at our assembly.

So here is how we run our service at Britannia. At our school we are very clear that November 11th is about Veterans. The day is never run as a theatrical event nor do we use it as a forum to focus solely on other global issues. We break the service into three parts. At the beginning we run the photos of every Canadian Soldier who has perished in Afghanistan (97 to date). In the middle part, we pay tribute to the relatives of our staff and students who served in WWI, WWII, and the Korean Conflict. Then, our Veteran guest (this year Captain Greene) speaks and invites the student body to join in the two minutes of silence. Finally, for the last segment we honour the 18 Britannia students who died in WWI and WWII. We use music, key visuals and spoken word to bring the whole service together and then we run the service three times because we cannot fit the whole school in our auditorium. It is a long but very moving day.

This year we were featured on the CBC's Early Edition.

Click here to hear the audiofile.

Here are some images from the day and an excerpt from the closing of the service.

Eli, Stef, and Carey
(Carey and Eli have been making music for our shows and services since they were in Grade 10)

Captain Trevor Greene

Captain Greene's Mom, Dad, and Daughter

Edward Hulme: The father of my teaching colleague Grant Hulme. He is 90 years old and a survivor of the Battle at Ortona.

Seaforth Cadet Jasper

Singing A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

The Band: back - Mr. McKechnie (band teacher) and Carey
front - Trevor, Jacob, Stef, and Eli

Celina talks about every child's right to an education.

Alison and Miranda speak about the dangers facing women in war-torn countries

Jamie Overgaard, Coporal Joe Allinas, Trevor Greene, and Master Corporal Patrick Farrell

Trevor W. playing the Last Post and Rouse
(He is only 12 years old!)

Our closing message as delivered by Grade 12 student Hannah:

We want to give you one last reason to wear the poppy. Right now, there are 30 wars being fought throughout the globe. Over 300,000 children have been forced into conflict as child soldiers. More than twenty million people have lost their homes because of wars and natural disasters. But here, at home, we have the security and safety that is only a dream for other young people.
In this final presentation, you will see a series of names being held up. These are the names of young soldiers from our school. These are the names of Britannia Students who died overseas and never came back to Canada. You will also be seeing images from around the world. Take this time to remember that we must not take our advantages for granted. Our access to medical care, education; our right to vote; our freedom of speech. These human rights were hard one and they are rights that everyone deserves.
Until this truth becomes a reality you wear your poppy not only as a symbol of remembrance, but also let your poppy be a symbol of protest against the gross inequality and tyranny that breeds war. Remember that until all of our brothers and sisters around the world are freed from the chains of ignorance, poverty, and hatred that cause strife and inequality. . . until that beautiful day is realized, not one of us can truly be free.

And here is a video of our closing number. Yvette, the soloist, is only 14 years old.