Welcome parents, and students to our 2023 Remembrance Day Assembly. I have tremendous gratitude to our teachers and grade 4 students for their leadership and talents at our Remembrance Day Assembly on November 8th. Special thanks to our music teacher and creative director Ms. Lyons.
The school Remembrance Day Assembly is a day to pause and think about all that we have
and those that defended our freedoms around the world and those that continue to defend our way of life. Today we remember all who fought so that countries like Canada remain free and safe places for us to live.
We are reminded every day that we must NEVER take our the peace we have in Canada for granted. We recognize and honour the efforts of our Canadian vetrans at work at home and abroad, as well as those who are currently sacrificing their safety and their lives for freedom in countries around the world.
Today as we look back, we need to stop and remember that The Canadian Armed forces made up of real people. Sometimes these soldiers were our Indigenous brothers and sisters. November 8th every year marks the official Indigenous Remembrance Day. We specifically recognize the sacrifices of all our Indigenous soldiers who fought, were wounded and died for this land. Some of our soldiers were recent immigrants or second or third generations Canadians - defending a country they loved because of the life they were building here.
My friends, how many of you have older brothers and sisters? Cousins? Teenage friends or family members? You might be surprised to know that soldiers were often only 18 years old when they were sent off to the horrors of war. They have futures ahead of them, hopes, dreams and people who loved them. In a moment, they gave all of that up so that Canada could be the place we count on for freedom and safety today.
Think about that for a second.
Would we do the same?
Earlier this week, I able to be part of a lesson with grade 1 and 2 students. As a class, students had read The Peace Book by Todd Parr and were making personal connections.
I did a stand-up hand-up activity with the kids and heard what peace meant to several of our students. I was really proud that this conversation was happening in our school with some of our youngest students.
Here are some of the things I heard them tell me:
Peace being curling up with their mom or dad and reading a book.
Peace is sharing your snacks,
Peace is helping someone up when they fall down.
Peace is when we say we are sorry, even if it was an accident.
What students were discribing was the feeling of comfort and safety that we get because of the small actions we take every day. We started to realize that peace starts small and spreads to others. Every day we have an opportunity to choose our actions. Every day we can choose between conflict and peace, love and hate. belonging or lonliness
On Remembrance Day we ask you to remember our soldiers’ incredible actions and sacrifices but EVERYDAY we are asking you to think about the kind of world we want to live in. We must take actions to create peace, safety and belonging in our school, our community and our world.
What we do matters. Together we will make our school and the world a better place, one peaceful decision at a time.
Lori Holford
Proud Principal
Edgemont School
