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Disadvantages Of Residential Schools

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Disadvantages Of Residential Schools
Residential schools
How they were meant to rob native children of their heritage

Residential schools robbed native children of their heritage to prepare them for life in “white society”. This led to stolen childhoods and forgotten heritage.
Aboriginal children were sent to schools that were called “Indian Residential Schools”. Residential schools were run by the Government of Canada and the churches (Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, United and Presbyterian). Residential schools were open from 1831 to 1996. Residential schools were present all around Canada (including Nova Scotia)
Residential schooling was not optional; kids were taken from their parents without knowledge of what was going on. Since the children were removed from their families, …show more content…
Duncan Campbell Scott (head of the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932) - “I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that the country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone… Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department, that is the whole object of this Bill.”
Residential Schools made Aboriginal children talk, dress, think and act like “white Canadians”. The government and churches believed that this was the only option and the right thing to do at the …show more content…
Even when children were out of Residential schools most couldn’t get their heritage back because most would be emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives or didn’t have the resources to re-learn their language and cultural ways. By robbing children of their heritage this had long term effects also. Since these children were forced to forget their language/culture/heritage they couldn’t pass it down to the next generations. This led to some Aboriginal language being very rare or even extinct. Residential schools didn’t only rob these children of their heritage but also robbed the future generation of their heritage. In conclusion, the point of residential schools was to prepare native children for life in “white society” in other words: residential schools were made to rob native children of their heritage. Children were scared to even think of their home-life/heritage/language because of the horrible abuse they would get for expressing their heritage. There heritage was literally beaten out of them. This put a huge halt for future generations learning about their aboriginal
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