Posts: Residential schools just the facts
5/27/2019 4:47 PM by sylvia.paul
BACKGROUND...
Long before Europeans came to North America, aboriginal people had a
highly developed system of education. If you think of how difficult it must
have been for aboriginal people to survive by earning a living from the land,
you may realize that there was a great deal for aboriginal children to learn
before they could survive on their own. Aboriginal elders and parents passed on
not only survival skills to their children, but their history, artistic
ability, music, language, moral and religious values.
When European missionaries began to live amongst aboriginal people, they
concluded that the sooner they could separate children from their parents, the
sooner they could prepare aboriginal people to live a civilized (i.e. European)
lifestyle. Residential schools were established for two reasons: separation of
the children from the family and the belief that aboriginal culture was not
worth preserving. Most people concluded that aboriginal culture was useless and
dying and all human beings would eventually develop and change to be like the
'advanced' European civilization.
Early residential schools were similar to religious missions. Later, the
mission-run schools were administered jointly by Canadian churches and the
federal government, and for a number of years, residential schools became
official Canadian policy for the education of Indian children. Speaking no
English, having never ridden in a car or truck, having never eaten anything
other than meat, fish, bannock and perhaps the occasional sweet treat, aboriginal
children as young as six left the world of their families and were sent into
the unfamiliar world of the white man.
Children were usually rounded up in August and transported by train,
plane or bus to the residential schools. They were separated from their
brothers, sisters and friends and herded together according to age level. They
were issued clothes and assigned a bed number. Even though many of the children
could not speak any English, the supervisors spoke only English to them. The
children were, in fact, punished for speaking their native languages. For as
long as a year, and occasionally for several years, children were unable to
express to anyone in authority what their basic needs were. Loneliness,
sickness, confusion and abuse all had to be borne in lonely silence.
Many things combined to make the experience difficult for young
aboriginal children. They included the suffocating heat of the buildings; the
painful need for someone to talk to; the pain of separation from their
families; the bad tasting, indigestible food; the size and unfamiliarity of the
buildings; the frightening crowds of people; the painfully abusive and harsh
discipline; mental and physical abuse; and the continual loss of personal
freedoms and individual control. All of this must have been a staggering shock
to the new "student" .
The white man's school contradicted everything these aboriginal children
had learned at home. Aboriginal society placed a large measure of
responsibility on children's shoulders. They were expected to help with jobs
such as tending the nets, feeding the dogs, cutting and hauling wood, cutting
up meat and fish for drying. The school demanded very little in comparison. A
child had no responsibility for the well-being of others. At residential school,
the aboriginal child became no one's keeper, not even his own.
Some children were able to return home for two short summer months.
Parents found that they had changed. Children were no longer interested in
helping the family with tasks such as carrying water and other chores.
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