Armistice Day - Veterans Day - Remembrance Day

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Loretta reports:

THE SCHOOLS AND ARMISTICE DAY

THE schools are asked to give special attention to the celebration of Armistice Day, in an appeal issued by J. J. Tigert, United States commissioner of education. Dr. Tigert says:

November 11, Armistice Day,* will become more historic as the years pass, and it will take its place with the Fourth of July, the Twenty-second of February and other epochal days in American history.‘ This day marked the hour of democracy’s triumph over autocracy and the end of a war that many hoped might end wars. It marked the opening of a great conference in the city of Washington last year which made much progress toward limitation of armaments and toward the substitution of reason for force in the settlement of international disputes.

Wars and destruction spread rapidly. Peace and constructive enterprises require time for consummation. Years of education, gradual development of better understanding, the slow substitution of sympathy for suspicion, the eradication of selfishness and lust for power—all these and more must be brought into the hearts and minds of the peoples of the world before we can have enduring peace.

The schools are the great mills through which we must grind the grist of peace and where those qualities of human character which will bring about the sway of righteousness, justice and reason can best be developed. It seems well, therefore, for our schools to put emphasis upon armistice day as a day of special observance, not only in memory of those heroic soldiers who defended our liberty, but as a day for fostering sentiments of peace.—School & Society, Volume 16, Society for the Advancement of Education, 1922

*At 11AM on 11 November  1918 the Allied Powers and Germany signed a ceasefire agreement, which brought the Great War to an end. Since, sadly, it turned out not to be the only Great War of the century, its name changed to World War I.

Image above: Welcome home our gallant boys  (1918), courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Image below: Photo of a veterans square memorial in Worcester, MA. The plaques (not actually blue, as you can see here—but this is the way my new camera photographed it) appear on granite pedestals at intersections throughout the city. 

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will take you to the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.