Residential Schools In Canada

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Often is heard about the stories of troubling events that take place within the walls of the Residential schools in Canada and how the quality of living and how the students were treated by the staff of the schools. Aboriginal names replaced and languages shunned as being not proper. Stories of abuse not only between teacher and student but also students. Residential schools are somewhat a gray area as the government whishes not to speak of what has happened, while everyday more testimonies from now adults that have experienced life in these school’s pop up everyday. Taking a in-depth look on how these schools functioned and what damaged they cause to aboriginal society’s. Residential schools in Canada started appearing not long after the arrival…show more content…
These school were not only created for the sake of educating Aboriginal children, but to also in a way the school was placed to also “deculturate” the children. The children often removed from there parents and native communities. Once the children entered the school all of their personal belongings or any other item that would have a connection to their community or culture would be stripped away. Clothing was taken away, hair was cut and they were forbidden to speak their native tongue (Charles 346). The children were forbidden to socialize with siblings and practice their culture. These tactics led to very rapid alienation between the students but also to induce rapid assimilation into North American culture. These methods are shocking as when the children would return home during the summer they completely forgot their mother tongue of their parents and no longer believed in their culture which created…show more content…
These schools have become somewhat a scandal in Canadian society and his believed to be one of Canada greatest historical shame. With mortality rate being unknown from these school, it is likely that they were high. As some children would randomly “disappear” while attending school cause of these circumstances of death, alienation from their aboriginal culture and also disappearance many of the young children would never return to their proper families or even communities. The loss of so many children broke the hearts and foundations of communities the actions that took placed ruing those times can still be felt today (Charles 347). All these factors lead to a truly isolated environment for most of the young children as creating functional relationships between the individuals and others, support from other became impossible as students were in some sort of “competition” between each other to become this image of the “perfect student” to curry the favor of the staff by adopting the behaviors and values of the teachers and staff. This caused friction between students and friends as abuse started between the students

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