A Tragic History; a Hopeful Future.
Although the study of Indigenous education was only a small section of this course, I feel that my overall studies at TRU in the last year have been revolved this topic, and it is important knowledge to maintain, not only as a student, but as an aspiring teacher and a Canadian citizen.
This course along with others, has introduced me to the history of the Residential School System in Canada as a way to assimilate Indigenous children into “civilized” members of society. This form of “education” plays an extremely traumatic role in the struggles that Indigenous people in Canada have had to suffer, and continue to suffer from today. Although it is a very painful topic to discuss, I feel that it is important for Canadians to create awareness and share the knowledge about this impacting time in history.
https://waynekspear.com/2013/02/25/all-about-indian-residential-schools/
I would like to use this platform as a way to share a poem that really affected me as I listened to it. It is painful and raw, and it took courage and amazing creative talent to compose such a touching piece of literature. The poem is called, “MONSTER, A RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL EXPERIENCE”, written by Dennis Saddleman. Listening to Dennis recite this experience of his education opened my eyes to the suffering that so many Indigenous children had to experience, and brought me to tears. Please click the link below to listen to Dennis.
From this course, I have been able to concentrate on acknowledging the past mistakes that were made, but also focus on what I can do to ensure that education should never repeat old patterns of being a tool to create a superior culture over any other. As a future teacher, my goal is to create a vastly diverse multicultural learning environment that allows students from all different backgrounds to express themselves freely and share their cultural practices and beliefs in a safe and open classroom. I hope I can teach my students that there is no “right way” when it comes to identity, culture, and ways of learning.
Just because we cannot change the past, does not mean we can not look back on it and examine the mistakes made and how we can make sure they don’t occur again.
I cannot change what has happened, but I can be a positive change for the future.
Michaelsolomon.com, accessed April 17, 2019. ://www.michaelsolomon.com/market-segmentation/multicultural-marketing/