Monuments offer learning opportunities

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/07/2021 (1751 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When I read the Winnipeg Free Press article Idols no more (July 7) about the statues (or lack thereof) at the legislative grounds, I recalled meaningful field trips that my students and I have experienced over the years at key locations around Winnipeg.

For the past decade, several groups of approximately 20 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students and I have gone on field trips twice each term. We visited the Manitoba Legislative Building grounds in the fall and the Manitoba Museum in the spring; the Winnipeg Millennial Library has been a constant, regardless of the season.

The rationale behind these locations was manifold, including awareness of Canadian history, appreciation for Indigenous culture and familiarity with various services in Winnipeg. These educational outings have been well planned and properly aligned with our program of studies.

At the legislative building, we began our walking tours with the first monument listed in the self-guided walking tour guide and proceeded accordingly until the very last one. Part of our routine included the identification of passive voice and various verb-tense grammatical structures embedded in the description of each of the 40 monuments on the list of our self-guided tour.

Each monument was paramount to our understanding of where we have been as a society, even the ones that brought back traumatic memories, such as the ones related to the Holodomer famine and the 1995 Polytechnique event, to name a few. In a multicultural class, it was not uncommon to have students who had been personally affected by some of the stories depicted by the various statues and memorials.

In those instances, we paused for a longer period of time for storytelling and, at times, even for tears. As a learning community, we were in a safe place. We felt comfortable revisiting events from our past as we learned about each other’s historical backgrounds.

During our visit to the various monuments depicted in each of the passages, we engaged in experiential learning. Since we used the numerical sequence of a guide, we were usually ready for a break by the time we reached the Louis Riel statue and plaque (south grounds, river walkway). We often stopped to enjoy the view, rest and interact, have a snack and, to my enjoyment, share our knowledge of Louis Riel (a topic of one of our group projects earlier in the term) and continue our meaningful discussions on language application and culture acquisition.

These educational moments would not have been possible if these monuments had not been there — each one of them. The learning would have been more meaningful, however, if it had included more idols — statues and memorials — associated with Indigenous peoples. Although every term there was discussion about some of the historical injustices toward Indigenous peoples (resulting from our module on Indigenous culture), the revisiting of their history at the grounds would have helped solidify what we had learned and discussed in class.

In order to ground our assertions on the literature, students both in the fall and in the spring had the privilege of an in-person guided tour of the Winnipeg Millennium Library. The students who were newcomers to Canada would obtain a library card and become familiar with the services. As an instructor, one of my main goals was to instill in each member of our learning community an appreciation for group projects that were research-based and evidenced by more than one perspective to help stimulate discussion and critical thinking.

Unsurprisingly, these groups of approximately 20 ESL students spanning a decade often surpassed their initial goals. As a group, we became more aware of what happened in the past, how we can make informed decisions as we move forward, and why it matters to view historical events through different lenses. We learned that even thought it can seem unattainable at first, change can happen.

We have also learned to embrace our differences — proof of what we can accomplish when we have enough time and space to decompress, learn and engage with one another. As we continue to have discussion from various viewpoints (the Famous Five and their beliefs, for instance), we may wish to include (rather than exclude) a diversity of historic symbols to help tell stories which, as the Free Press story notes, “have not yet been told.”

Rita Zuba Prokopetz has been teaching English as a second language in Winnipeg for more than a decade.