Anzac Day Break

Took a day out yesterday to reflect on what is really important in life. Anzac Day signals a real sense of community for Australians and New Zealanders here and around the world. War is not celebrated but commemorated, and while nationalism is politicised, so too are the virtues that remain universal such as resilience, fortitude and honour. More and more visitors go to Gallipoli and Kokoda each year, demonstrating a need for connection to the past in a time of growing secularism and social uncertainty. While many point out that Anzac Day has been actively promoted by recent governments as a way of enhancing patriotism, it cannot be ignored that such a day has a positive unifying impact. It is also a fine way to acknowledge the work and contributions made by older citizens and to remind children and adolescents that the best things in life should need literally and metaphorically, to be fought for by others. School celebrations help emphasise what makes it an important day to remember.

War texts often feature in both junior and senior curriculum but they typically are those that hold moral messages about the personal and social costs involved. Poetry by Owen, Sassoon and Dawe are familiar but there are contemporary poets that address recurring themes of sacrifice, courage and suffering within a modern war context.

http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2011warpoetry.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8455677/Modern-war-poetry-British-soldiers-explore-Afghanistan-and-Iraq-wars-in-verse.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/25/war-poetry-carol-ann-duffy

Mark Twain had scathing words for war and his famous 'War Prayer' is a powerfully condemnatory attack of what can result. It is a brilliant text to do with senior students in relation to examining how he uses language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJsZCpp8hR4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsoJ-WJZGXM

Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel . . . And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for "the universal brotherhood of man" - with his mouth.
Mark Twain