2022 Remembrance Day Challnge Kit at Tiger Jeet Singh Public School

“When Lesley Andrews, the Vice-Principal at Tiger Jeet Singh, told me about the opportunity to participate in the Remembrance Day Challenge Kit, I was immediately anxious because it’s something that I’ve wrestled with for over a decade as a veteran and educator. Every year, I do something related to Remembrance Day in schools, but the connection just wasn’t there, especially for students.

Being a veteran, my students immediately had a personal connection to Remembrance Day. This Challenge Kit extended that connection to our whole community, and helped build real meaning around Remembrance Day as something the kids care about and not just another assembly. The Challenge Kit builds those connections every step of the way. It challenges students’ understanding, and broadens their perspective, and helps move people that might have been entrenched.

I was concerned this was just going to be a rebranding of Remembrance Day. After the first teacher learning session, it quickly became clear that this wasn’t just another made-up project for students. This challenge calls attention to the idea that, as a society we have not modernized or built connections around Remembrance Day. I saw this Challenge Kit as a way to do something that I’d been struggling with for years.

Later the same day, I went to the Regimental Cenotaph a few blocks away and I came to an insight: there’s a torch to pass on and I think I see how I fit in. It has taken a long time, but this challenge helped me reconcile my identity as someone in the army, a veteran and now, as an educator. It has taken a long time, but this challenge helped me reconcile my identity as someone in the army, a veteran and now, as an educator.”