Philosophy Of The Residential School System

Parshant Jindal
T00539563
Dr. Yaying Zhang
ENGL1100-17

The Residential School System: Philosophy
From the ancient times, various societies try to exercise control over the others in order to demonstrate power and strength. Making people learn others language, religions and beliefs has often been a way to control large racial groups in an effective way. In the article, “The Residential School System,” Murray Sinclair and A.C. Hamilton sheds light on different attitudes and philosophical ideas of Aboriginal and European people. This led to the formation of a superior stereotypical view of the European culture by the European powers. The writers discuss the conflicts between the federal government and the Aboriginal society, and how the government
The students at Residential schools were provided with inferior education. Most of them were taught to do manual labour which includes working in agriculture, industries such as woodworks and other domestic work such as laundry, sewing, cooking, dishwashing, etc. Most of the students at Residential Schools were not able to complete high level of education because of the quality of education because many attended school only part-time and worked for the school rest of the time.
Teachings focused primarily on practical skills. Girls were primed for domestic service and taught to do laundry, sew, cook, and clean. Boys were taught carpentry, tinsmithing, and farming. Many students attended class part-time and worked for the school the rest of the time: girls did the housekeeping; boys, general maintenance and agriculture. This work, which was involuntary and unpaid, was presented as practical training for the students. With little time to spend in classes, most students has only reached grade five by the time they were
Bryce reported that 24 percent of previously healthy Aboriginal children across Canada were dying in residential schools. This figure does not include children who died at home, where they were frequently sent when critically ill.
Also, the educational residential schools were administered by sacred religion oriented churches that paid more emphasis on changing cultures rather than educating them. The teaching revolved around the brainwashing of native children by emphasizing the advantages of white culture and the evils of First Nation based on isolation, primitive language and culture.
The historical evidence states that the condition acknowledged by residential school children strengthens the argument that the Residential school system initiated by the Federal Government was not aimed at educating aboriginal children but its goal was to remove and isolate children from their parents, tradition and culture, and assimilate them into dominant white culture. However, ever after the closure of the last residential school in year 1986, effects can still be seen in the life of residential school survivors and also in their successors. Many Aboriginal children feel that they belong neither to the Aboriginal nor to dominant white culture. My further study will be directed towards the life time effect and situations faced by the residential school survivors. Also, the next study will also include the damage done to the language, culture and tradition