Tour for Humanity spent the day at a high school in Oakville. Today marked our second visit to the school, the first time being in December 2014. The contact teacher, who we had worked with on our first visit, wanted to book the bus again to allow all the Grade 10 history classes to participate in the Canadian Experience workshop - which will be presented over two days (Tour for Humanity returns to the school again tomorrow). 

Although it was early in the semester, the classes were quite interested in the material, particularly the story of the SS St. Louis and Canada's role in World War II. They were surprised to learn that Canada was not always a diverse, multicultural and welcoming country. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Daniella is always very impressed when a student asks an insightful question that demonstrates thoughtfulness about the topic. Today this occurred when she was discussing Japanese internment camps with one of the groups. In response to an image of a sign in the presentation showing "white man's neighbourhood," a student wanted to know why the sign was written in English and not in Japanese characters, especially if people believed all Japanese Canadians were "spies." Daniella told him that it a very good point and allowed her to focus the class discrimination is emotional and not rational. 

The FSWC classroom was also busy today as FSWC Educator Elena hosted Grade 7 students from a private school in Brampton. Students from this same school visited FSWC last year in preparation for their visit to the United Nations. FSWC has become an important tool for the school’s Model UN club, which was the context of the visit this year as well. The boys who participated are going to a Model UN summit that is being held in Rome in the spring so their visit was in preparation of their upcoming trip. Elena spent a lot of time talking about the qualities that go into making a good leader, as well as qualities that might be associated with bad leadership (shown through our case study of the Holocaust and devastation caused by Nazi leadership during World War II). Elena also talked about some of the different forms of intolerance we continue to see in Canada today, including antisemitism. One of the students brought up his own experience with intolerance towards Sikhs, explaining that people often think he is Muslim because he wears a turban. Elena talked about the fact that ignorance and hatred are often tied together and that we have to make sure that we don’t let fear guide how we treat each other.

 Another interesting moment came when Elena asked them to describe some of the leaders they admire in their own lives. One of the students said that he thought of his aunt as the leader of the family. He explained that she is the only adult in his family that takes time to make sure everyone is treated fairly. When he or his cousins misbehave, she doesn’t punish them right away. First she talks to them and gives them a warning. He mentioned that in contrast, his dad and other family leaders just get angry and immediately get on with the punishment. He didn’t elaborate but Elena thought this was a very powerful observation for a 12 year old to share.