Generalization and Rationale Objectives Teacher Information & Introductory Activity Main Lesson Supplementary Lesson Print Lesson

Lesson 1B - Teacher Information

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Prior to European contact, Aboriginal groups across the country were educating their youth following a variety of different strategies and methodologies. Some Aboriginal groups believed nature was the best classroom, while others followed structured methodologies such as ceremonies, formal instruction and vision quests. Other Aboriginal groups believed in teaching and learning through observation. Community members were seen as important teachers as they were believed to have something important to share through the passing on of traditional knowledge or unique skills.

Contact brought with it tremendous change to the lifestyle of Aboriginal Peoples, including the education sphere. Christian missionaries albeit Catholic or Protestant were focused on saving the 'heathen souls' of the Aboriginal People. Aboriginal beliefs were viewed as pagan and often they were referred to as 'devil worshipers'. These beliefs were reflective of what the missionaries conceived Aboriginal cultural as a whole to be like. Therefore they set upon a mission to proselytize and educate the Aboriginal population into European/western ways.

It should be noted that different monastic groups went about this process in a variety of ways and with different intentions.

Probably the most damaging effects of the Christian missionaries' quest to indoctrinate Aboriginal Peoples was the forced removal of children from their families and communities to isolated Christian schools known as residential schools. Assimilation was the primary goal of these schools.

Generally speaking, residential schools have an overarching negative persona about them. Aboriginal students were stripped of all forms of cultural identity such as the cutting and shaving of boys and girls hair, they were forbidden from speaking their own language and were often secluded from their own brothers and sisters who attended the same school, and in many instances given Christian names. A stark reality is the amount of emotional and physical abuse that many Aboriginal children had to endure while separated from their culture and families.

Residential schools were not the only form or schooling made available to Aboriginal children. Industrial schools were also developed and funded by the government to teach the Aboriginal children skills that they would need to be successful in the new western world. Day schools were also developed upon some reserves as well as boarding schools. Alberta was not exempt from any policies of assimilation and therefore represents a broad range of different types of schools for Aboriginal children.

 

 

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