Residential Sociological Study

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How did residential schools have an effect on the Aboriginal people culturally, psychologically and socially? Native Residential Schools in Canada operated from the 1880s to the 1990s had a huge negative impact on the Aboriginal people, their culture, their mentality and their overall being. It is not a topic that we often discuss about it because of the endless hardships that these people had been put through, but it is something we need to acknowledge what happened on our land and understand how badly it affected the First Nations. Based on the social sciences, there are 3 different implications to consider when studying this case, an anthropological perspective, psychological perspective as well as a sociological perspective. Residential…show more content…
Native residential schools can have a long-term impact on the Aboriginal people psychologically. The only way which the government could eliminate the Aboriginal people at a young age, they accomplished this when they began the school system. These young children would be taken far away from their families so they weren’t surrounded by their own community at all. Due to this experience, most of the students did not encounter a nurturing family which affects their developing brain as well as lacking skills to raise their own families (Legacy of Hope Foundation, 2015). Additional to not having their families to comfort them, at the school these children were physically, emotionally and psychologically abused as a form of punishment. There was no real education for these students. They were discouraged to pursue higher education after grade 5 and most of these students were at the age of 18 by then. These children did not have access to healthy nutritious meals they needed to grow; they did not have the proper clothing, inability to speak, being isolated from their surroundings which causes loneliness. The Legacy of Hope states that “Residential School System is one of the major causes of poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and violence among Aboriginal people.” The residential school impacted these Aboriginal people mentally. It had leaded them to causing self-harm; most deaths were caused by suicide, sense of worthlessness and causing low self-esteem. There were high rates of alcoholism, substance abuse and suicide (Indigenous Foundation, 2009). These Aboriginal children would feel as if they do not belong to either society; nor Aboriginal or “Canadian”. The long-term effects on these children is their inability to express their feelings, lack of confidence to speak up for themselves, no sense of trust or belief in their surroundings, inability to communicate literately with others as well as the lack of

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