The Tour for Humanity finished off our week at a middle school in Brampton. Tour for Humanity will be returning at the end of the month to teach their Grade 6 classes, meaning the entire school (840 students) will have taken part in the FSWC Tour for Humanity program.  The students at this school have been very attentive and respectful all week, today included, which makes working with 12-13 year olds a real pleasure. FSWC Educator Elena received a lot of questions throughout the day, especially during the first two workshops. All of the workshops were on the Canadian Experience but as usual students had the most questions about World War II and the Holocaust. Elena had several of the usual questions (Did Hitler really die at the end of the war? Is Donald Trump like Hitler?), however, there were also students who were able to make connections with their own lives when Elena spoke about the Holocaust - they were responding on an emotional level to the unifying theme of injustice and prejudice. One young man said that his great-grandfather was an Indian soldier fighting for Britain during World War II. Another student proudly told us that his great-grandfather fought against the Nazis in Poland. Three different students asked if Auschwitz was a place you could still visit and one of their teachers had actually just returned from visiting Auschwitz. The students were fascinated and horrified to hear about some of the things on display(human hair, shoes, eyeglasses, etc). 

The section on Canadian history was also very eye-opening for a lot of the students. Most were familiar with the Residential School System and the story of Chanie Wenjack but they had very little knowledge of Canada during World War II or of the racism in Canada’s immigration policies with the Chinese head tax. There weren’t many questions about that topic but Elena felt that the students, many of who were of Chinese heritage, were absorbing and thinking about that information. To keep them from feeling overwhelmed Elena reminded them about the fact that the Canada we know is very different today and that we are proud of our multiculturalism. Unfortunately, bad things can happen anywhere and we need to recognize the fact that we have the power to help change the lives of those around us through small acts of kindness. Elena also made sure to tell each teacher about the upcoming Speakers Idol competition and told students it was a great way to reflect on the lessons we can learn from hatred and intolerance.