The past is sometimes repeated, and that’s why Saskatchewan history teacher Brenda Doud has been taking students overseas for more than a decade.
With one eye on the world’s war history and the other on current-day political turmoil, Doud led a group of 62 rural parents and high school students to France to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War’s Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The Education First tour, which included a group of Kipling, Montmartre and Whitewood high school students, teachers and parents, was among the crowd at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial on April 9.
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“You just have to look at current events to see how important it is to make them (our students) understand that history isn’t just in their past, but there are connections to today,” said Doud, who sees parallels between the robust nationalist sentiment rising in the U.S. today and that of European nationalism in the world war eras.
“When the kids make connections between what happened then and what is happening now, that’s when it becomes real,” said Doud, who is also principal of the Whitewood School.
Over the years, the teacher has witnessed inexperienced students turn into world travellers and she has observed the direct impact that European history, particularly war history, has had on her students.
The group’s visit to execution square and torture chambers in Breendonk Concentration Camp in Belgium was the most sobering experience of the 12-day trip that took the rural Saskatchewan group to Belgium, France, Netherlands and England.
Prior to leaving on their European trip, the high school students each prepared profiles of Canadian soldiers who had served overseas at Vimy Ridge. Doud’s daughter, Cheyanne, was moved by the story of her young soldier.
“Knowing his name and then seeing it on the monument or on a headstone, or hearing his name called out over the loud speaker at the ceremony, hits you in the gut,” said the Grade 12 student.
The students read their soldier profiles on the bus as they made their way to the Vimy 100 event attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Princes William and Harry.
Doud’s Grade 9 son, Kurtis, said the loss of 3,598 Canadian Corps lives at Vimy Ridge is hard to fathom.
“I can’t imagine that we would allow that many people to be sacrificed in one day. It just wouldn’t happen these days. So it’s very important to not get to this point ever again,” he said.
