Residential Schools Essay

Parents and communities were not always given the choice to send their children to school; Many were forced to do so. In some communities, there were day schools and, in others, schools that operated on a voluntary basis. However, many schools were long distances from Indigenous communities and thousands of parents were forced to send their children to school. Governments in Canada, Australia, and the USA believed that taking children and placing them in schools, long distances away from their homes, would not only physically remove the children from the influences of their peoples, but also allow for constant supervision by missionaries and/or educators to create an environment for maximum transformational results. If parents or communities did not comply with the rules, they were sent to prison and/or fined and physically abused. Even though some children had no choice but to attend the schools, “many parents felt guilty because they knew the abuses their children would have to endure. As the …show more content…
The initial introduction to residential schools would have been, for many peoples, traumatic. For fear of misguided uncleanliness, children had their hair cut and they were washed with the harmful pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). Hair, in many Indigenous cultures, is spiritual and to have one’s hair cut is likened to having part of one’s soul cut away. Some Indigenous communities believe hair is an essential part of a harmonious body and spirit. In other cases, hair was sacred or powerful. Many Indigenous personal stories talk about the taking away of personal clothing, toys, and other belongings. The children were made to wear uniforms. This further stripped the children of their personal identities and physical self-expression. This form of cleansing was strategic in two forms: to ‘purify’ the children and to homogenize and obscure them from their personal