Reflection paper about residential school - Essay Example

Residential Schools in Canada When you hear about residential schools, the intrigues you to the thought of a place where one can access a higher level of formal education. I came to realize that this was not the case. On the surface, the term sounds benign; the kind of place upper-class Britons would send their children to get an education that can prepare and help qualify them for Oxford. However, for natives in Canada, residential schools are places of terror and nightmares. It is difficult for one to comprehend why the government of Canada is not following up on the initial purpose of residential schools, which was to provide a good education for native children.

It seems the schools also had a larger purpose of eliminating the cultures of indigenous people in Canada. The problems started by sending the children to schools far away from home. Putting the native children far away from home and not allowing their parents to visit was psychologically devastating to the children. To worsen the situation, the government developed laws to force every child to attend school and forcefully remove children from school for the retraining. If the residential school system had good motives, then why force children to such schools.

I think this was just a plot to remove the Indian culture by breaking the transmission chain through excluding children from their culture and putting them in complete isolation. The government’s slow response to the report issued by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People further highlights the ill motive of the residential school system. The report extensively elaborated the abuse and neglect facing the natives in these schools. The food was inadequate; there is poor sanitation; they were overcrowded; students were malnourished and often abused by the teachers.

The children were also exposed to diseases both deliberately and from the poor conditions in the schools. Rape, murder, sterilization and forced electrocution were among the problems reported by the Commission (Cherrington 1).Therefore, one is left to wonder if these are schools or some form of government torturing facilities for suspected terrorists. The residential school was fair to the natives. Despite coming from different cultures, these children are not in any way entitled to be treated as animals.

It is important for government and people to respect the ethnic backgrounds and cultures of different individuals. I do not see any reason for developing initiatives to eliminate the customs of the natives. Why even create the residential schools in the first place? We are all humans. Be you an indigenous, Indian, Spanish, Canadian r African. The fact that you are human entitles you to the same privileges. Although the government issued a statement of responsibility in 1998 and created a department to resolve the abuse claims, I still believe it should do more.

In addition to the settlement package for the survivors of residential schools, those guilty of the crimes should be punished. The amount paid to individual victims of the suffering is not impressive at all though the government boosts of compensating well to the survivors. I think it is not about the money. I have learned that suffering and abuse faced the residential schools were more psychological and mental than physical. Such people require more than money to feel better and appreciated.

I think it is more of an acknowledgment of responsibility than the money the settlement represents. There should be more talk, acceptance of the Indian culture, and interactions with other people if any steps towards reconciliation are to be successful. Work CitedCherrington, Mark. "Oh Canada." Cultural Survival Quarterly, Vol 31, No. 3 (2007).