Today, in classrooms and hallways, at school assemblies and community cenotaphs, LKDSB students and staff pause.

We listen.

We learn.

And we remember.

On Remembrance Day, we honour Veterans, current service members and those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to Canada.

For our schools, it is also something more.

It is a responsibility.

Across our schools and sites, and throughout the communities we are so proud to be part of, remembrance takes many forms.

Students stand alongside Veterans, families and neighbours at community cenotaphs. Wreaths are laid on behalf of our schools and the Board. Classes participate in community ceremonies and commemorations. Veterans and Legion members are welcomed into our schools. Students prepare readings, music, artwork and presentations. Assemblies bring entire school communities together for moments of silence and reflection.

Some students hear the names of those who served read aloud.

Some discover connections between the names inscribed on local memorials and the families and communities they know today.

Others stand quietly before a cenotaph, perhaps beginning to understand for the first time what the words service and sacrifice truly mean.

These moments matter.

Because history can sometimes feel distant, particularly to a young person.

But a name etched into a cenotaph makes it more real.

So does standing beside a Veteran.

So does laying a wreath.

So does hearing that the person in an old photograph was someone’s son or daughter, parent or grandparent, neighbour or friend.

Behind every chapter in a history book were people. People who left their families and communities. People who served. People who sacrificed. People whose lives, and the lives of those who loved them, were forever changed.

As a public school board, our responsibility goes beyond teaching the dates and events of history.

We have a responsibility to remember.

We have a responsibility to help our students understand why Canadians gather each November. To share the stories of those who served. To honour those who did not return home. And to help ensure those stories are not lost as one generation gives way to the next.

The students sitting in our classrooms today will one day be the parents, grandparents, educators and community leaders entrusted with this history.

If remembrance is to endure, each generation must understand not only what happened, but why remembering matters.

Across the Lambton Kent District School Board, we are proud to share in that responsibility with our students, staff, families, Veterans, Legions and communities.

To those who served.

To those who returned home carrying the experiences of their service.

To those who continue to serve.

And to those who never came home.

We remember them.

May our students know their stories.

May our schools continue to tell them.

May our communities continue to gather in their honour.

May we never take for granted the responsibility we have to remember.

Lest we forget.