The Value in Remembering

Last week I was a little saddened by an experience I had so I thought I would share in a hope of garnering other people's opinions.

On the last day of the school term we had our ANZAC commemoration assembly at school. These school holidays are slightly longer because ANZAC day and the associated public holiday fall at the end, so schools commemorated ANZAC day early.

In the pursuit of sharing the facts about ANZAC day in a way that the students I work with could understand I went looking for a child's picture book for ANZAC day. I knew there were some wonderful books on the market so thought that my mission would be easily accomplished.

The first shopping centre I visited now only has one bookstore because according to the manager of the only remaining bookstore they "don't have enough business". To me this was just so sad but not surprising to me as I teach in this local area and know only to well the drama of encouraging parents to value reading at home.

I explained what I was looking for to the first sales assistant and their response "Sorry what are you looking for?". I repeated my request and the sales assistant "No one has asked for an ANZAC book before". Thankfully the manager rescued me but informed me that they don't stock any because there is no demand - but he could sell me a book about Waltzing Matilda - he had plenty of those sitting on the shelves. No demand?

I visited the Westfield closer to where I lived and on Thursday evening i visited 5 places that sold books {7 if I include the previous store and major department store} before I found a store which had an extensive range of books for ANZAC day not only on WWI but also Vietnam, Kokoda and generally rememberance.

Now to give the 5 other places credit they all knew what ANZAC day was but they all told me they don't stock the books, they only order them in on request.

I find this shocking. Yes we are in an increasingly technological world where a lot of illustrated books have been substituted in the life of children for multi modal texts but to have to hunt so extensively for a book on the first war Australian soldiers participated in should not be so difficult. One shop assistant told me we shouldn't be teaching kids about war. It is the looking back at war and the lessons learnt in peace time that helps us remain in a state of peace.

Remberance is not glamourising war. There are important values which need to be taught as a matter of course to the next generation regardless of the fact that we no longer have any ANZAC diggers from the 25th April landing alive.

Do we want our kids to only know about ANZAC day as "yeah like the biscuits"?

When we visited Turkey we went to Anzac Cove. It was a moving experience to see the graves on the beach cemetery and see the ages carved into the headstones. The casualties were huge for the Aussies in relation to the other nations. 

To walk through what remains of the trenches and to see how close they were to the Turkish trenches was moving. Perhaps it is because I have stood in the same place our soldiers stood and read the names on the headstones and seen the volume of names at Lone Pine.

The kids in my class (I teach special ed) really understood when they saw the Turkish graves. There were losses on both sides and the fact that Australia and Turkey are friendly now in the world's political climate is also an important lesson for kids.

But I doubt being this is the reason this is important to me. I think it is because my dad instilled in me the importance of taking time to be thankful for the country we are living in. Our generation has been spared conscription and we are blessed for that. I can remember waking up really early and shivering at the dawn services. Now as an adult I appreciate him taking the time to  teach me values.

I know I am not alone. Regardless of the books being hard to find in bookstores, I know other people value rememberance. Each year as fewer diggers remain more families line the streets in the city to show their respect to those who made life changing sacrifices for this country.

I want to teach my daughter and my kids at work that it is more than biscuits, a public holiday and a sleep in. 

I want our daughter to understand the value of rememberance.

Lest we Forget