Hamilton teachers honoured with Governor General’s History Awards

Two local educators are making history by the way they teach it, winning Governor General's History Awards in November, one for staging an opera once performed by prisoners at a Nazi concentration camp using school kids.

The other won for establishing the Souharrisen Natural Area, which has become a foundation for land-based pedagogy in partnership with the community, his students and with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations.

These remarkable teachers, Dawn Martens at Buchanan Park and Nathan Tidridge at Waterdown Secondary School respectively, have accomplished so much in their own rights but they both hastened to thank and give credit not only to each other but to another amazing history.

That would be Rob Flosman, a history teacher at Waterdown Secondary, the genius," Martens says, behind the history museum at that school, one built by teachers and students. It's magnificent and well worth a visit.

He is an inspiration to us both," says Martens, a music teacher who has been putting on operas at Buchanan Park for more than 20 years, somehow motivating and teaching elementary students to learn their parts (and a lot about the history of music and opera), much to the delight of audiences. The performances are both adorable and serious.

This year's opera, however, was special, and the one for which she won the Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Teaching.

It was performed online, against great odds, and the task of putting it together, assembling all the separate files, was - I was going to say herculean; but I don't think Hercules could have done it. Martens did. It was a huge success.

That was back in the spring when everyone was trying to adjust to some hard and confusing new realities.

And then there was the choice of the opera - to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz - Brundibar" by Czech composer Hans Krasa, who put it on at Terezin concentration camp, where he was imprisoned, using children also imprisoned there as performers, since the opera is based on a children's story. The Nazis actually filmed the several performances, but once done, the performers, Krasa and the opera's director were taken by cattle car to Auschwitz where they were all gassed to death.

It's one of the most horrific stories I've ever heard," says Martens, adding that, while the Nazis thought they had their pleasure of the opera and then extinguished it, the truth is it has survived and every time it is put on it's a symbol of the perseverance and triumph of beauty and art and justice over hatred, ignorance and violence.

Tidridge, at Waterdown Secondary, for his part helped realize an incredible ambition along with the Indigenous community and other educators and students in establishing Souharrisen Natural Area in Flamborough. It not only expresses a commitment to nature, history, the importance of Indigenous learning and culture, and the benefits of different communities working together toward a common goal but also recognizes the benefits of opening our ideas of education around land- and nature-based pedagogy.

This educational and cultural space in Waterdown continues to evolve as an outdoor classroom and inspiration for numerous curriculum-based projects.

Tidridge has made huge contributions over the course of his career to history and education, including books he has written on historical themes.

But it was specifically for his role in establishing the Souharrisen Natural Area for which he won the Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Teaching.

And there was a nice thread to their distinction insofar as Tidridge was a student teacher under the above-mentioned Rob Flosman. Flosman himself won the Governor General's History Award in 2017.

In addition to winning the award, Tidridge was also chosen to compose and deliver the address on behalf of all the award laureates at the online presentation ceremony.

Jeff Mahoney is a Hamilton-based reporter and columnist covering culture and lifestyle stories, commentary and humour for The Spectator. Reach him via email: jmahoney@thespec.com