Jean-Pierre Frigon

Recipient of the 2008 Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History

November 17, 2008

École Secondaire Paul-Le Jeune, Saint-Tite (Quebec)

Jean-Pierre Frigon stimulates the learning of history through a number of educational activities — presentations, projects, field trips, and exchanges — which involve students directly. One of the dominant themes in his class is Canada’s involvement in the great international events of the twentieth century.

In The Roads to Freedom (Les chemins de la liberté), Jean-Pierre leads his students to explore the contribution of their region and that of Canada as a whole to the Allied war effort against the Nazis.

This project is centred around the production of an historic calendar dedicated to local veterans and an international exchange between students from Quebec and France that was focused on underlining the contribution of Canadians to the liberation of France.

This project entailed an enormous amount of time and resources. It involved visiting commemorative historic sites, and culminated in the production of a commemorative space dedicated to veterans at École secondaire Paul-Le Jeune.