Indian Residential Schools

Canadians are constantly being told that the Indian residential school system is at the root of the many dysfunctions in Indigenous society today. Alcoholism, violence, poverty and poor educational attainment […]
Published on September 14, 2018

Canadians are constantly being told that the Indian residential school system is at the root of the many dysfunctions in Indigenous society today. Alcoholism, violence, poverty and poor educational attainment are all blamed on these schools, the last of which closed in the 1990s.

Here are some myths and some facts:

Myth: residential schools robbed all native kids of their childhoods.

Fact: the average stay was only 4.5 years and the vast majority of aboriginal youth never attended such a school.

Myth: residential schools robbed Indigenous society of their languages and culture.

Fact:  former students of residential schools are nearly twice as likely to have retained more of their language and traditional culture than those who did not attend an IRS institution, and are more likely to provide leadership in preserving that culture, than those who did not attend.

Myth: the harm done to those attending has been passed down to today’s generation.

Fact: the attendance of a grandparent has no effect on a child’s attitudes to school or academic success.

Public policy should be based on evidence, not myth. Let’s get to work solving today’s problems and their real causes.”

For more information see https://fcpp.org/wp-content/uploads/EF43MythVsEvidence.pdf

Featured News

MORE NEWS

New Zealand’s Rejection of Woke

New Zealand’s Rejection of Woke

‘Oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them’ has long been conventional Westminster wisdom. What is remarkable about Labour’s election defeat is how significantly they lost. It was an historic turnaround from 50 percent support at the 2020 election to just...

Maybe the Residential Schools Should Just Have Been Better?

Maybe the Residential Schools Should Just Have Been Better?

Most of the attention on the subject of indigenous education in the last three decades has been on residential schools. But other aspects of this important topic have been ignored. Quite simply, the real tragedy of indigenous education is not that some indigenous...