As an educator in Canada, teaching about Canada Day may be handled in varying ways and lengths. There is the “Let’s Not Be a Party Pooper” response, where we all get into the Canada Day spirit, sing the anthem repetitively and obnoxiously loud, paint students’ faces red and white and talk about the great, many, wondrous undertakings that our mighty nation has undertook for the world and humankind. This method is an obvious mistake, as most people are aware that it promotes a terribly skewed, Eurocentric history of Canada and fails to acknowledge and/or respect The First Nations, the rightful peoples of this land. It’s an idyllic“ignorance is bliss” method that harkens back to a time where that was an acceptable way to sweep our colonial dirt under the rug. It ignores the atrocities that were committed and continue to be committed against the First Nations, other minorities, nature and the under-privileged, to name a few, at the hands of the white settlers, politicians and industrialists. Our students are from multitudinous backgrounds. They may have been affected by what has happened or is still happening.  It’s a  poor attempt to retain a sense of concrete, unflinching homogeneity in a vast, diverse nation that needs to remember, not forget.

The second approach in teaching about Canada Day in school is the “Canada Doesn’t Deserve ANY Celebration.” This approach preaches to our students how Canada’s sorted past is intertwined with genocide, prejudice and a poorly constructed political system and, while there has been improvement in certain areas, particularly in acknowledgement of the terrible deeds that were committed in the past, the atrocities continue to this day against our Aboriginal brothers and the destruction of our natural resources at an alarming rate. While this approach is a lot more truthful and realistic than the first choice, it still fails to really allow our students to explore what Canadian history and Canada Day mean to them. It’s a teacher centred method, telling them what to think, rather than making them think about it.

Our students are fully capable of processing information and coming to a conclusion themselves on how they feel about Canada and what it has done and if it does deserve to have a day to celebrate itself. I think our job as educators in this particular kind of lesson is to ask questions and give students an opportunity to research the answers and voice their own opinions. I feel it’s not about getting it right or wrong. It’s empowering them with the task of researching Canada and the questions I ask them, putting the information in front of themselves and deciding on how they feel about it. High school students are smart. Being a critical investigator and having those skills to gather enough information and come to one’s own conclusion is a priceless skill to hone for university and life in general, as in any number of situations we find ourselves in, our task is to process information and formulate an answer. So what do I do? Well, as a new teacher, I must admit, I haven’t taught about Canada Day as of yet, but have taught about 420 in the classroom and so I have a general idea of how to approach somewhat controversial subject matters. I break the classroom into groups and provide guiding questions that need to be researched and answered. These questions ask the groups to look into Canada’s past, present and future and determine “How Canada is doing as a nation?” I might give each group a different focus, such as politics or First Nations, but I may also allow for overlap. Once again, I will go over how to look at information critically, how looking at multiple sources is important, how you have to decide on whether or not you find each source reputable, as well as provide them with several resources to consider. Critical research techniques are something I try to bring up again and again, as they are vital skills to acquire and utilize. After asking the groups if they have any further questions, they are off to the races. It is up to each group to research information, find facts and quotes to support their claims and form a general opinion as to whether they feel Canada is doing well as a nation or not so well. In the end, possibly in a follow up class, I would get the students to present their findings. A discussion can build off of the presentations. I would bring up, again, that there might not be an answer to this question and that it’s possible that the answer is a spectrum response, rather than a yes or no.

My prime objective as a teacher, to prepare them for the world outside of school with tools and skills they can use in a plethora of scenarios, rather than just a series of my opinions and binders full of recycle worthy notes than might be useful if you were on Jeopardy or were really into crossword puzzles. Nix the last one. Crossword puzzles involve processing information, a skill that you wouldn’t have if I simply stood on my educational soapbox and ranted to you, for eighty minutes, Monday through Friday, ten months of the year. My classroom is about discovery, curiosity, making a mess, discussing the other side, the unpopular side, the little known about side of an issue. And I explore with them, and I discuss, question, debate and reevaluate myself as well. Canada Day is a great opportunity to explore, to practice critical dissection skills and active listening and find out what your students think about Canada and the day set aside every year where we, as it’s citizens, are suppose to celebrate it.