Hello there fellow humans, and welcome to yet another blog post (I need a new intro, suggestions are welcome). From the start of this project, we knew we were going to be making many real-world connections, creating a class zine about WWII’s role in shaping Canada’s identity, as well as collecting $500 dollars in order to purchase a flag from the Juno beach centre (the museum at the beach taken by Canada on D-Day), and present it to a local place supporting military veterans, the Lynn Valley Legion.

In this project we did many a thing, in fact, I would confidently say that this is the largest project we’ve ever worked on in PLP. We started off just by learning about the severity of WWII and how the war played out. it was very insightful to learn about the war and how it has affected my life, I really feel like a started to connect some things in my head. It’s honestly hard to describe, but I definitely felt a strengthening of my national pride on those days.

We also had a guest speaker come in from the Lynn Valley Legion to talk to us about the notion of service and what we can do for our communities. I thought in general he was a really nice guy and he had a lot of good points when it came to volunteering and community. We then volunteered our time around the community, which was a nice experience, and I discovered a lot about how the world works in regard to volunteering and what it can mean for someone or something. I know that’s all a bit cryptic, but it’s a little hard to explain concisely. I’ll just show you what I did and my section for the about me section in our class zine:

James is a grade 10 PLP student at Seycove secondary who enjoys spending time with friends, designing things, and solving Rubik’s cubes. For his service project, he decided to participate in a cleanup of his local forest, removing trash and making the forest a better place for humans and all other creatures as the forest is very important to him, as he enjoys being in and around nature. He very much enjoyed cleaning the forest while exploring and discovering more about Canada’s forests and geography. His friend Matteo also came to help out.

(I’m on the left)

Then we get to the hard part, the essay. Why is there always an essay? So much essay. However it actually wasn’t too bad this time, as least the first draft, and even that didn’t happen until after a lot of planning. In fact, here was my plan; I think this took longer than the essay itself because I had to make sure the whole thing would make sense when it was finished:

The Plan

you might have to zoom out (CTRL + Scroll)

And lets not forget about the thesis which when though many, many iterations:

If you actually want to see them:

General vibe: “Canada’s multicultural identity was fostered and enriched by its military contributions in WWII, shaping the country’s unique and inclusive national identity.”

Potential points to argue:

  • The UN and NATO’s existence have prevented WWIII
  • The UN’s peacekeeping operations blah blah blah
  • How WWII contributed to Canada’s safety and security
  1. The conflict of WWII directly led to the safety and prosperity of Canada though Canada’s acts within the war
  2. Because of Canada’s contributions in WWII, Canada is safe and secure today
  3. Canada’s safety and prosperity are a direct consequence of Canada’s military contributions in WWII
  4. Canada’s multiculturalism is a direct consequence of Canada’s military contributions in WWII – reword, add identity, fostered
  5. Canadian’s values are a direct consequence of Canada’s military contributions in WWII – needs identity
  6. Canadian’s lifestyles are a direct consequence of Canada’s military contributions in WWII – needs identity
  7. WWII was only won by the Allies as a direct consequence of Canada’s military contributions in WWII – is a statement, too much nationalism, also an opinion?
  8. Canada’s global reputation is a direct consequence of Canada’s military contributions in WWII – needs identity
  9. Canada’s multiculturalist (<- Not a word) identity is a direct consequence of Canada’s military contributions in WWII – reword, add identity, fostered

Final: Canada’s multicultural identity was enriched and expanded by it’s military contributions in WWII, shaping the country’s inclusive national identity.

And then we had to learn about MLA formatting (which was not as bad as I expected), it was a challenge but eventually I understood enough to the point where I use it and be confident it was correct.

I also had to write the thing itself, which was definitely a challenge and after I finished planning I only had a day or two to complete my first draft but here it is:

After that I revised, revised, revised (around 6 total revisions) until I had a finished product that I was actually really proud of:

I think my favourite part of this project was either learning about the good part of Canada’s contribution is WWII or actually doing my service project. Both just felt right and were actually rather enjoyable. I think I over-planned my essay a bit to much, and as we learned about in our atomic habits project earlier this year, I did to much work that seems good but actually doesn’t get much done.

Some of my key takeaways from this project were about history, how it to analyze it, and a deeper understanding of how it shapes the present and the future. I also feel much more confident in essay writing now, which I’m sure is a skill that will benefit me throughout later life. It it kind of sound like a bit of a shallow explanation, but these are some of the most useful skills I gained in this project.

So yeah, in the future I will do more realistic planning for my essay, and I also think that learning some writing skills could be beneficial for my my focus and even personal well being. Big projects with a deadline can be very imposing, but I think learning how to succeed in that type of situation will set me up well for life.

So now we get to answering our driving question: “What role did the conflict of World War II play in shaping Canadian identity”. My answer, built off of all that we learned in this project is: World War II played the role of an instigator for the advancement of Canada’s society and identity though providing a necessity for innovation and assertion of Canada’s national identity. I hope that makes enough sense. its hard to condense an entire project into one sentence. Thanks for reading!