Remembrance Day Classroom Lesson Plan
7 November 1999 David Morgan Vancouver
Greetings:
I have used the lesson plan below in schools for the past 5 years
and it works very well.
Best wishes,
David Morgan
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REMEMBRANCE DAY
A lesson plan by former teacher & Veterans Against Nuclear
Arms (VANA) National President David R. Morgan
Concepts to be taught:
1. War is a DISASTER (Not a game, or a heroic adventure)
2. War is a PREVENTABLE disaster.
Materials:
--Computer paper
--Felt pens
--Prepared charts in big letters & numbers showing all the key
facts & figures. These are taped near the time line as they
are mentioned & left there (Unlike 'now you see it, now you don't'
film & overhead projector images) Low tech is often best.
Preparation:
Use 9 sheets of computer paper. Do not separate them. Draw a 100
inch long black felt pen line down the centre of the sheets.
Mark off a time scale, one inch/year starting at 1900 and
ending at 2000.
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Lesson Development:
--TIME LINE:
Introduce the time line
Class birthdays
my birthday. 1930
My Dad's birthday 1895....102 YEARS AGO!
--My Dad was 19 when WW-1 broke out
1912:
WHAT SHIP IS THIS? TITANIC
TITANIC DISASTER analog;
-1,503 lives lost
MATH not only for figuring change at corner store when you buy candy,
it's to help understand important things, so let's
figure:
ONE METER APART..1,503 people LINE-Up from school to 1.5 km
away:
What do you call this?... A DISASTER
-ENQUIRY:Into sinking of Titanic found need for:
Enough Lifeboats
Ice Patrol to watch for icebergs
-ANY MORE SHIPS SUNK BY ICEBERGS SINCE TITANIC?
RESULT; No more ships sunk by icebergs BECAUSE this was correctly
seen as
-A PREVENTABLE DISASTER
1914: WORLD WAR ONE:(Just 2 years later)
- CANADIANS:68,300 killed - from school to .......(68.3 km away)
- TOTAL, ALL COUNTRIES: 17 million killed (Rough figures; no body
counters)
-17 MILLION 1meter APART ? 17,000km!!
How far from VANCOUVER TO HALIFAX NS? 6,050km
So back to our useful MATH: 17,000/6,050=2.8
PIN UP MAP OF CANADA: 2 lines from Vancouver to Halifax
& one line from
Vancouver
to Montreal. Nearly three lines from coast to coast!
IMAGINE WHAT THIS MEANS: WW-1 Killed 17 M million V------H
RELATIVES: Each of those people had a family
WOUNDED: At least 3 times as many. Think of all the suffering.
IF TITANIC WAS A DISASTER, WHAT WOULD YOU CALL THIS?
-War is THE BIGGEST DISASTER
GREATER THAN ANY OTHER; Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Floods are tiny
disasters
compared to
war.
-US President WOODROW WILSON thought about this:
"Earthquakes, Hurricanes,
Floods can't be prevented," he
said," but maybe war can be prevented."
WAR maybe PREVENTABLE DISASTER, just like ships hitting icebergs
can be
prevented.
What we need is a war-prevention-organization"
All the nations agreed. Its home was in Geneva Switzerland
& it was
called
-THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS,
but the U.S. CONGRESS wanted no European
entanglements & The US membership is not passed or
"ratified."
-Lacking the US power (& detachment) the League fails
(If you don't have a strong ice patrol & if you don't listen
to its
warnings
you can expect another disaster)
sure enough...
WW-2: 50 MILLION Killed!
50 MILLION M! so 50,000km
How far around the world. What is EQUATOR 40,065km!
how far to HALIFAX? 6,050 SO 50,000/6,050= >8 TIMES!
step OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL & TAKE A LOOK...
Three lines of soldiers across Canada,
but FIVE lines of civilians! Modern war kills more
civilians than
soldiers!
-What a shocker. 20 million soldiers but 30 million CIVILIANS
WW-2: 50 MILLION Killed V---------H
IMAGINE again, WHAT THIS MEANS:
RELATIVES: Each of those people had a family
WOUNDED: At least 3 times as many
A HIGHWAY OF DEATH & SUFFERING FROM COAST TO COAST
CAN ANYONE DOUBT WAR IS THE BIGGEST DISASTER?
WORLD WAR 2 ended with a BANG. DRAW MUSHROOM CLOUD ON TIME
LINE
Hiroshima & Nagasaki
During WW-2
IF WAR WAS SUCH A DISASTER before atom bomb, what now?
DISASTER PREVENTION VERY BADLY NEEDED!
No time wasted! UNITED NATIONS ORG formed even before war was
over
BUT,
N.ARMS RACE KEEPS WORLD ON BRINK OF DESTRUCTION FOR 45
YEARS
HOWEVER:
- UN was always a place where the Nations could meet
- Somehow WORLD WAR 3 never happened ALTHOUGH we came VERY CLOSE
- WAR IS A PREVENTABLE DISASTER
- We must still work hard to prevent it
- Learn about the UN & how you can help its work.
CONCLUSION:
1. WAR IS THE BIGGEST DISASTER
2. WAR IS A PREVENTABLE DISASTER
What does the poppy mean?
3. REMEMBER
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* David Morgan, National President *
* Veterans Against Nuclear Arms (VANA) *
* 240 Holyrood Road, North Vancouver, *
* BC, V7N 2R5
CANADA *
* Tel: 604-985-7147 Fax:604-985-1260
*
* e-mail: <dmorgan@web.net>
*
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