Gee-wiz welcome back folks (I’m a master at 50’s slang). We have just finished up our big project about the 1950s. In this project we were tasked with answering the driving question “How did Canadian life develop after WWII?” We had to create a podcast episode to answer this question and we worked closely with a group called the Deep Cove Heritage Society to gather information on Canadian change. The two main competencies (which are basically just The big ideas we need to learn) that we were focussing on were discuss, listen, speak, and continuity + change. 

One assignment I’m really happy with was the topic choice presentation. For the presentation we had to choose a topic that related to your podcast, and the 1950’s. I ended up choosing immigration (which coincided well with my podcast). It was not only a good opportunity to practice public speaking and presenting skills, but it was also an excellent example of continuity and change. In my presentation I discussed the big changes in immigration policy, and the way it’s run, but I also talked about Canada’s overwhelming drive for economic immigrants, and how that hasn’t changed much at all since the 50’s. I don’t think any other assignment allowed me to effectively show both sides of continuity and change. Which was a bit unfortunate, as I believe being able to recognize patterns in history (like continuity and change) is extremely important. However in my podcast I (probably overly) focused on change, and missed out on continuity. I was also really excited about presenting, and the opportunity to speak publicly, which perfectly leads me into my second assignment.

A slide off of my presentation

When I said assignment I really meant assignments. This project we focused A LOT on presentation skill (yay), and gave three in class public speaking presentations. One was presentation mentioned above ^ (check it out people who are skimming my post), a presentation on current events (my favourite one), and a presentation on the case R .V. Drybones(S.O my cool group Anthony and Rhiann). My personal favourite presentation was the presentation on current events. It was really interesting to learn about something more current, but also tie it back to our project. It also started multiple discussions and I got to hear the opinions of many of my other classmates. I personally think presenting is one of the most important skills to have, being able to publicly speak and pitch ideas to others is valuable in pretty much any workplace. My mom always talks about how she wished she’d had more experience with public speaking before her current job, because it took so long for her to figure out how to get in a good rhythm and properly share ideas. I also think that discussion is not only a fun activity, but a useful tool in learning to speak with others (even if you disagree with their opinion) and get your points heard. Our classroom gets pretty rowdy during our discussions ( sometimes debates ) and you have to learn how to get your voice actually heard. 

One other activity that I really enjoyed in this project, was watching the movie Pleasantville. To fill you in a little bit Pleasantville is a movie about two teens from the 90s who get stuck inside of a 1950s perfect town sitcom. When they show up they bring all sorts of crazy modern ideas and eventually turn the whole town upside down. Although I didn’t feel like this movie was a very accurate representation of the 50s it certainly portrayed the stereotypes of the 50s, and honestly it was really helpful in understanding what life would’ve been like back then. Through this whole project we’ve been talking so much about the 50s but even by the end it was still sometimes hard for me to envision life back then, but this film allowed me to do that more easily. It also really highlighted the change from today. In the entire movie I could find very little that I related to today. It’s honestly really shocking as I have relatives who lived through the 50s and are still alive today, and it makes you wonder how much the world can change in such a short time. I really wish I’d seen this movie before speaking with my interviewee because I think it also would’ve helped me paint a much better picture of the way she describes Canada and deep Cove in the 50s and 60s.

In the end, this project, along with all the others we do was driven by a driving question “How did Canadian life develop after WWII?”. And really there was no better way to answer this question then in my podcast episode. I think that Canadian life underwent massive changes after World War II, I mean it was literally a globe changing event in terms of political ideals, world borders, and world powers. In my podcast I chose to focus on how immigration that changed Canadians lives. The influx in immigration brought in new religions, new cultures, and new ideas, and changed Canada in many ways. And while I do believe the immigration played a key part in changing Canadians lives I actually think it plays a much bigger effect today. The 1950s was the set up to immigration that we see today. The policy shift and the need for economic immigrants still drives Canada and their many programs like the point system, and sponsored immigration. As an immigrant myself I personally think that immigration is played a giant role in my life, and immigration would be nowhere near the same today without the economic boom of the 1950s and the postwar years.

Some of Canada’s change

However I have to say many other factors went into changing Canadians lives, and not one thing in specific changed everything. If I had to take one big idea away from this project it would be that almost every change you see is linked and related to each other. Like how the war ended and people came home, which meant more supplies were needed, which meant industry developed, which meant the economy boomed, which meant immigrants were needed for jobs, and people began to have more kids, which in turn created places like suburbs and a demand for technology, which needed more industry and more science and more people to do work. Nothing stood by itself, every single change was linked to another change, and nothing was simply explained. I’ve always liked the phrase that nothing is black-and-white (my dad always says that to me) and I think that this project perfectly taught that to me, and gave me a better understanding than ever before. 

In the end I really enjoyed this project and I am always excited to learn more history. I’m really excited next year to learn about the Cold War, and the postwar effects on Europe, Asia, and the USA. 

Thanks as always,

Holly