Residential
schools were "boarding" schools meant to keep Indigenous people
(F.N.M.I) so that they could assimilate them into European cultures.
Dear Diary;
Today is the day that I start my job at the
local residential school, and I have to admit that I am quite nervous. I have
heard lots of not so nice things about these places like their teaching is
horrible, no empathy for these children at all, I just hope today won’t be one
of those days that I have heard all about.
Dear Diary;
It is terrible! These poor children have it
so rough. Some of these boys had to wake up at the crack of dawn and do the
morning chores like milking the cows and feeding the animals before anyone else
woke up. Then about a half hour later everyone else woke up. After they did their morning Mass, they had
their breakfast and trust me it didn’t look good at all.
Dear Diary;
All they do is chores! And when I finally
get them for their studies, a lot of it was the religious stuff and then
finally the stuff that mattered. Once we finally had gotten to the math,
reading, and writing these poor children were so tuckered out that they were too
tired to focus or just didn’t really care. We only have two hours per day to learn
the things every child should know and we aren’t even getting that!
Dear Diary;
The children have finally gotten out of
their lesson and it’s time to do more work. The little girls learn how to sew,
do the laundry, cook and clean. Most of the stuff they learn to cook is served
to all the other children for breakfast in the morning. The boys are taught how
to tend to the land, like raise a farm, grow a garden and chop down the wood,
they also learn other things like shoe repair which for the amount of time they
are on their feet, it will definitely be useful.
The children have finally finished all the
things they have to do and are all getting ready for bed. They brush their
teeth, cleaned up their face and hands threw on some pyjamas and went off to
bed.
Dear Diary;
I don’t know how these children do it but
however they get through it is something I wish I had in me. They all know they
don’t have it easy but they don’t let it get them down. If I were one of them I’d
just look at each day as if it were a new opportunity to make the next one better
and better.
Sources: My brain,
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Package
Hello, my name is Wade and I am studying to become a teacher at Brandon University. For our internet for educators class we were encouraged to look at some examples of how blogs are being used by teachers. We had your teacher Mrs. Thompson as a guest speaker in our class, so I knew that she had a class blog. I am very impressed with you and your classmates work. Blogging is a valuable skill to have in today's internet based world. There are some people that make big money from writing and maintaining blogs. Your class is lucky to be learning these skills at a young age.
ReplyDeleteI was very impressed with the topic you chose to write about. Residential schools are something that I did not learn about until university. I am glad to see that they are being discussed in your Canadian history course. It is a very devastating part of Canada's history but it needs to be talked about. Acknowledging just how bad they were is a big part of the reconciliation process. Great job sharing this with you class. Keep up the good work!