Lest they forget, Mike McKay, a teacher at Eaglesham’s little K-to-12 school, invites junior high and high school students to take part in a ritual unlike any in Canada. First, they march nearly two kilometres carrying military kit bags, then they dig until their muscles are sore, then they hunker down in the trenches late at night and wait for sleep that never comes.
“Somewhere around three in the morning, the temperature plummets and so does morale,” says McKay, a former reservist whose grandfather fought in Italy and Holland during the Second World War. “I try to teach the kids that war isn’t glorious like video games and movies make it out to be, and I try to erase the idea that Remembrance Day is just a day off of school.
Students spend a night in the trenches northwest of Edmonton
“Somewhere around three in the morning, the temperature plummets and so does morale,” says McKay, a former reservist whose grandfather fought in Italy and Holland during the Second World War. “I try to teach the kids that war isn’t glorious like video games and movies make it out to be, and I try to erase the idea that Remembrance Day is just a day off of school.
Students spend a night in the trenches northwest of Edmonton