Remembrance Day in the Classroom: A Good Time for Poetry

SUMMARY
Remembrance Day is an important tradition in schools around the world and a timely way to integrate poetry into the curriculum. In a classroom activity, students compare two poems (In Flander's Fields and We Shall Keep the Faith). Key international Remembrance Day Web resources are provided.

Lest We Forget
The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month: Remembrance Day is always special, or should be. Canadian schools maintain the tradition strongly, with services that always include the reading of In Flander's Fields, by our countryman John McCrae.

In Britain, the ceremony at the Cenotaph is a national treasure that recalls the contribution of all the Allies in mutual sacrifice and service. Similarly, in Australia and New Zealand, Remembrance Day or Armistice Day is a deeply honoured tradition. Throughout the Commonwealth and other countries, days are set aside to remember men and women who preserved our freedoms. In the United States, Memorial Day is held on the last Monday in May to honour the fallen in all American conflicts.

Poetry and Remembrance Day
In my English classroom and school library, Remembrance Day was a timely way to integrate poetry into the curriculum. Before and after the day itself, we would study Owen, Graves, Whitman, Binyon, McCrae, Auden, and other "war" poets. In fact, Remembrance Day was a good time to recall how poetry is indispensable in expressing humanity's deepest feelings of joy, loss, defiance, and ultimately hope.

Like many, I am disturbed that poetry is increasingly seen as a frill or nuisance. It is often being ignored from fear, time pressures, and ignorance. So today seemed a timely opportunity for me to hold the torch high for poetry. At the right you'll find a new page that encourages study of poetry through comparison. This was always a successful teaching strategy, especially for students who needed a prompt to approach poetry with greater confidence. As one poem bounces off another, one can explore the styles, feelings, and themes of each poem more easily.

The page begins with two poems for Remembrance Day: John McCrae's In Flanders Fields and a response to it by Moina Michael's We Shall Keep the Faith. Michael is credited with conceiving the idea of using poppies as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in World War I.

A Final Resource
There are many wonderful and free web resources to celebrate the day (please see a selection below and suggest others in your comments). One of the best available is the Royal Canadian Legion's Teachers' Guide to Remembrance. This comprehensive work can be adapted for international contexts and contains songs, stories, and poetry, projects and activites (how to make a poppy), suggestions for holding school Remembrance Day services, and essay and debate topics.

More Web References for Remembrance Day
"Where Did the Idea of Selling Poppies Come From?"
Wikipedia article on In Flanders Fields
Imperial War Museum Digital Poetry Collection
Remembrance Day lesson material (Australia)
Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs
Annual Sikh Remembrance Day Service
History of Armistice Day (New Zealand)
National Film Board of Canada Collection