HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-11-06, Page 16PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2008.
Born on July 23, 1900, Mr. John
Babcock grew up on a farm in
Kingston, Ontario as part of a family
that included 13 children. When he
was quite young, his father died in a
tree-cutting accident.
Despite this devastating loss, Mr.
Babcock went on to bravely serve
his country in the First World War.
He was 15 years old when he
joined the 146th Battalion of the
Canadian Expeditionary Force in
Sydenham (near Kingston), Ontario.
A few months later, he arrived in
England. He was transferred to
reserve battalions and ended up with
the Boys Battalion (also known as
the “Young Soldier's Battalion”) in
1917, waiting until he turned 18 to
go to the front lines. The war ended
first.
Mr. Babcock would later move to
the United States, where he then
served in the American Army from
1921 to 1924.
Mr. Babcock married Dorothy
(Dot) after his first wife, Elsie,
passed away in the late 1970s.
Mr. Babcock and his wife Dorothy
live in Spokane, Washington, where
he still reads voraciously.
He's also taken up flying lessons
and became a pilot when he was 65
years old. In recent years, he
completed his high school degree
via correspondence courses and has
taken local college courses. He can
recite the alphabet backwards
without hesitation and spell out his
name in Morse code. Mr. Babcock is
an avid traveller and takes daily
walks to maintain his good health.
— Source: Veterans Affairs
Canada
Last known Canadian veteran
of First World War now 108
Bake sale
It was a great weekend for connoisseurs of crafts and
baked goods in Brussels as the Legion held its annual bake
and craft sale. Jean Bridge, left, featured one of the tastiest
tables, full of pies and other baked goods as Florence
McArter and George Fletcher look on. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
As our World Warsbecome more distantand more veterans are lost,
education becomes crucial
to keep the memory of
Canada’s fallen soldiers
alive.
Joint efforts between area
schools and local Legions are taking centre
stage this week and on Remembrance Day to
ensure today’s youth remembers the
sacrifices of yesterday’s soldiers.
The key, right now, Brussels Public School
principal John Carr says, is to link the past with
the present.
“You have to link the fact that there’s a continuum of soldiers
from the early 1900s to 1945, but then of course, you bring it
up to date and show the soldiers in Afghanistan who are in their
way doing exactly the same thing as the soldiers were trying to
do in the World Wars,” Carr said.
“It’s just another way to make it real, because you show the
students these old black and white pictures and they wonder
what it has to do with them, then you show them pictures of
these young soldiers who have died in the last few months and
that makes it more relevant and more real to them.”
Preserving history and linking remembrance to recent events
has been a challenge for the Legions as well. Where veterans
and Legion members would go out to schools, visit with
children and lecture years ago, many have become too elderly
and immobile to do so, resulting in a lack of outreach into the
community.
“I have to say it’s a problem within the Legions themselves as
well,” Brussels Legion president Jo-Ann McDonald says.
“Because of a lack of committed members in the Legion and
not being able to take the time to get to the school and do a talk,
it’s been hard. We used to be able to bring our veterans in, but
they’re getting fewer and far between and older and they don’treally want to do it anymore.”Educational kits are made available to the Legion fromVeteran Affairs, which are then made available to schools.However, there are currently no specific provisions in the AvonMaitland District School Board (AMDSB) curriculum that
specify Remembrance Day activities or lessons until students
reach higher grades, where they will learn about past wars
through Canadian and international history courses.
The board, however, encourages Remembrance Day
education and finds that teachers and schools often do a very
good job of incorporating education into the curriculum come
November.
“As for something that is absolute and must be taught as part
of the curriculum, at the high school level it would depend on
course selection and what history courses students take. But at
the elementary level it would just be incorporated,” says Steve
Howe, AMDSB manager of communications.
“Without exception, every school does something to
commemorate Remembrance Day and some certainly do it at a
higher level than others. Even the minimum would be pretty
significant, but it’s not a required component of the curriculum.
Certainly though, everybody believes in it and the board
supports it.”
Legion members as well as students, however, find that
Remembrance Day is taught at a very different level depending
on who is teaching it. The majority of students in Blyth Public
School’s Grade 8 class said they could see a difference in
Remembrance Day education from year to year, saying there
were some teachers who were very enthusiastic about
Remembrance Day and some who were less enthusiastic.
However, most students remembered participating in the
Legion’s Remembrance Day contest several times over their
scholastic careers.
John Lowe, Zone youth education chairman and youth chair
for the Brussels Legion agrees, saying he often sees great
participation and a high level of talent from the two schools he
covers specifically, Brussels and Grey Central Public Schools,
but that there can be some inconsistencies from year to year.
“Unfortunately, because of the time allotted in the classroom,there are some teachers who are very gung-ho aboutRemembrance Day and have their students participating in theliterary aspect of our contests as well as the art component. Theteachers have the students do one of each and then you’ll lookat the grade above or below and they haven’t done a darn thing,”
Lowe said.
“Unfortunately it’s all on the teacher and how they look at
remembrance and whether they have the notion to teach it and
participate in the programs or not, and it’s really too bad.”
McDonald agrees saying the inconsistencies are unfortunate
as the window for connecting with World War veterans is
coming to a close.
“As time goes by and our veterans pass away, the younger
generation won’t have that connection to it any longer.
Someone who is 20 years old likely doesn’t have a connection
to someone who served in a World War,” said McDonald.
“I think the school and the curriculum has mandated so much,
that maybe it’s been shoved to the side a bit, but every year is
different and every teacher is different.”
Jane Morton, principal of Blyth Public School, cited several
years in which she has welcomed guest speakers into the school
on Remembrance Day, most recently OPP officer and father of
fallen soldier Cpl. Matthew Dinning, Const. Lincoln Dinning.
Carr has done the same, in addition to the annual assembly,
which involves music and artwork, they have had visits by
veterans as recently as last year.
At most schools, there is an annual Remembrance Day
assembly that involved music and artwork donated by all
students. From there, the level of education taught behind the
artwork is in the teachers’ hands.
“The goal of what we try to do is two-fold. We try to remind
students of all the great things we enjoy here in Canada and the
link to the people who have died in various wars to ensure we
can continue to enjoy these things. How it looks from class to
class then differs by age,” Carr said.
“Remembrance Day is never mentioned in our older
curriculum, but with a bit of imagination, teachers can
introduce it and make it relevant.”
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