Hey Y’all, Max here.
Juno Beach is the smallest beach on the 80-odd kilometre beach strip that makes up Normandy Beach. During the Second World War it was an important turning point in the conflict known as D-Day, where Normandy Beach was attacked by the Allies in an attempt to liberate and reclaim France, and eventually Europe, from Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers.
Juno Beach was also where 14,000 Canadian troops were deployed on D-Day, and where more than 1,200 would die. Needless to say, Juno Beach was the focal point of our latest humanities project, aptly titled ‘Save Juno Beach!’
Not so long ago certain French developers wanted to develop the Juno Beach strip for the location of a series of condo and housing developments. This includes the Juno Beach Centre, a museum dedicated to the memory and understanding of World War II and D-Day. Fortunately, it was shut down by lobbying from both France and Canada but it raises an interesting question: Why does the Juno Beach Centre deserve to be preserved?
Of course, there first needs to be knowledge of context, depth, underlying conditions, and historical significance. Historical Significance is a term that was used quite a bit in this project, and rightfully so.
This project began on March 30th, my birthday ( hooray ). What we did on this day was watch the first 25 minutes of ‘Saving Private Ryan’, a highly regarded and realistic film about D-Day. I should consider it a birthday gift, but to be honest I’m not great with gore or splatter ( of which there was a lot ) so I kinda felt sick. It was a nice introduction to the project though, so I have Ms. Madsen to thank for that.
There were more videos we watched about the Second World War. One in particular was about the concentration camps, where anyone Jewish or of certain minority groups were rounded up and killed. It was more difficult to watch than Saving Private Ryan, because it was actual footage from real concentration camps, during the Second World War. It’s disgusting to know what happened in these camps, but it’s important to understand and to know what the context and perspectives were, and are.
Anyways, the medium we were presenting. Our learning through was just an essay. a long one, at that. Leading up to this, we learned how to P.E.E. this stands for Point, Evidence, Explanation. To be honest I didn’t really get it but I’m sure it works for some people. I just remembered I used this method to analyze the significance of the Battle of the Atlantic, one of the most important parts of WWII.
The Battle of the Atlantic – P.E.E.
Persuasive writing and the use of Logos, Ethos, Pathos were also pretty important. Though PLP already went over this in depth way back in grade 8, it was good to have a refresher on this concept.
SO I really don’t feel the need to dill-dally and going depth about smaller white-board tasks, so I’m going for the jugular, being the essay. This wasn’t such a difficult task, just long and somewhat boring. The topic of World War II is by no means the boring part. It’s just I’m not able to focus on the parts that interest me, such as the Russian front or the Pacific Theatre; instead I am forced to explain, justify, and write about the historical significance of Canadian involvement in the war. To be fair Canadian involvement was massively important and there were many sacrifices made, I’m not trying to be rude. Blame it on the curriculum or the people who make the curriculum but I’m sick of learning about Canada. It’s true, I could be more patriotic. If you asked me I don’t think Canada is exactly a major player on a global scale, and I think there are a million things more interesting in the world to learn about. With that being said, don’t interpret this as me denouncing my Canadian identity. I admire a lot of what Canada has done as a nation economically, environmentally, and internally. I think BC is a great place to live. I’m glad I was born here. But do I think it’s the most interesting place? Not really. And that’s all I’m saying for now.
I don’t remember how I got to me ( not ) denouncing my identity but here we are. I made only two or three drafts of my essay before I handed it in, and those changes were made with suggestions from Zach and Mateo. I will attach them below.
( I just remembered Zach never gave me written feedback )
I also made suggestions for them but those are irrelevant. I also made suggestions for Cole and roasted him and his demeanour of writing thoroughly. It’s OK to write this because I know Cole will never see this.
Without further ado, here is my final essay on why The Juno Beach Centre should be saved, in this craft document, linked below. I answered the driving question in the essay, so I’m not about to do it again. Please consider reading it, though.