Assimilation In Residential Schools Case Study

Although some of the students from the residential schools were able to read and write and become part of modern society, a large majority had suffered far too much from their experiences. The key issue was isolation from their own cultures. The attempt to assimilate native aboriginals into the Canadian culture went terribly wrong. The aboriginal people had a very unique way of teaching their children. Their elders were able to teach them art, music, language and religious values. They taught them how to survive. They taught them through experience passed on from generation to generation. When children were forced into the residential schools, the Native culture began to disappear.

When the children were removed, they were forced to speak only English or French in the residential schools and lost a huge part of their heritage. Not allowing children to speak their native language and taking them away from their families and communities also hurt them spiritually. The residential schools did not allow any of communication even between siblings. They were assigned generic clothing and a number and that is how
Some of the problems that the Aboriginal people encountered as a result of this attempted assimilation were, and still are, poverty, addictions, abuse, crime, PTSD, loss of self respect, loss of pride and loss of their identity. The skills that they had been taught in the residential schools had nothing to do with native life, it was meant for them to learn how to become civilized. The effects of the residential schools on these children has a long lasting effect from family down to family. Those children are now parents and grandparents. These parents and grandparents spent the most formative years of their lives suffering and these long term effects have been transferred through generations of lives and