On June 19 Lady Evelyn Alternative School welcomed Vicki Heyman, wife of the new United States Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman, on her first official visit to a Canadian school.
Heyman met with teachers Joe Huniu and Danielle Fontaine and toured their respective classrooms, answering students’ questions about what it’s like to be an ambassador and hearing their impressions of the U.S. The primary purpose of Mrs. Heyman’s visit was to see what students in these classes have learned about slavery, a topic central to U.S. history.
Along with approximately 30 other Ottawa teachers, Huniu and Fontaine had attended a U.S. embassy-sponsored conference on global slavery in March. Co-sponsored by the University of Ottawa, the Ottawa Carleton District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton Elementary Teachers’ Federation, the workshop gave teachers an overview of the history of slavery and its persistence in certain industries and parts of the world today. The presentations were led by co-authors of Five Thousand Years of Slavery, a world survey of slavery’s history written for children.
The workshop was organized by Amelia Brown and Tom Allen, neighbours in Old Ottawa East who are also American ex-pats and former Fulbright scholars. Part of the inspiration was the shared history of slavery between Canada and the U.S. Many Canadians are not aware that slavery was also legal in this country until the 1830s.
The result of the efforts of Brown and Allen was an active, engaging workshop that gave teachers new information and tools to help students in Grades Four to Eight understand the impact of slavery in other countries and how it persists today.
Fontaine and Huniu used what they learned at the workshop to create dynamic, in-depth units on slavery for their students. Classes undertook projects to explore the impact of slavery in both past and present.
Students wrote about and created visual displays of the stories of real children around the world who had been forced to work as slaves. They also learned what they can do to help end slavery in the world today, such as by checking for fair trade labels on products such as clothing and chocolate, and by supporting organizations such as Free the Children.
Lady Evelyn students discussed their work with Heyman. She came away impressed with their efforts.
“It was such a privilege to see the fantastic work that the students of Lady Evelyn have done in their studies of global slavery,” she said. “Both classrooms that I visited were so impressive! Their energy and enthusiasm was palpable, and I was blown away by their deep knowledge and understanding of the history of slavery, as well as current day slavery and how it affects them in their daily lives as Canadian and global citizens.”
