In the fall of 2012, the Manitoba Museum heard from high school teachers – they were looking for training sessions to go with the Strike Kit, developed years before at the museum by Curator of Social History (Retired) Sharon Reilly, and her husband Nolan Reilly, Professor of History, University of Winnipeg. These kits were intended to help teachers that wanted to teach students about the Winnipeg General Strike. Each kit contains replica artefacts, audiovisual materials, posters, numerous historic photos and teaching suggestions. These kits have now been widely distributed to every High School in the Province.

The Museum, wanting to be responsive to teachers’ needs, developed a budget and sought support to develop the training sessions, incorporating new curriculum, a new student text and a new teaching approach. The Manitoba Federation of Labour came first to mind and were speedy and positive in their response to a request that they felt suited their mandate.

Working with these kits gave The Manitoba Museum the opportunity to align the kits with a new approach to teaching history, recently adopted by the Department of Education for use in our schools called Historical Thinking Concepts. What better than the topic of the Winnipeg General Strike to challenge students with the following questions: How do we decide what is important to learn about the past? How do we know what we know about the past? How can we make sense of the complex flows of history? Why do events happen, and what are their impacts? How can we better understand the people of the past? How can history help us live in the present?

The first group of teachers were trained Wednesday night, March 13th in the museum library, thanks to the Manitoba Federation of Labour.