The curriculum was designed to teach Aboriginal children life skills and was not based on academics. This was based on a highly racialized belief in the inferiority of Aboriginal peoples. It was a belief that Aboriginal children and their parents lacked the civilization of the Europeans, and would therefore not benefit from academic learning.
The skill set that these schools provide was based on two concepts:
to teach home making skills to the girls and farming and ranch work for the males. The skills taught to the girls would include cooking, cleaning, sewing and gardening. It was a belief that was held that a civilized woman, should enjoy the splendours and benefits of a civilized life. The boys would be taught how to farm and ranch, as this would allow the boys to become employable men who would be able to sustain their families.
And that the leisures that European ideas held in value, were unmatched by any other culture, in particular Indigenous and First Nations groups.
School Curricula:
While the curriculum and daily routine varied slightly at each institution, the activities and lessons were inspired by a general rationale:
- Skills were learned to prompt student’s dissatisfaction with parent’s way of life while encouraging a drive towards wage-labour activities.
- Increased emphasis on industrial skills because it became apparent that assimilation was not succeeding.
- Industrial training and skills were often “taught” in order to keep the school running. The schools operated on a per capita grants (Contract System), depending on the number of students enrolled. Many schools were poorly underfunded and forced to use the unpaid labour and production of the students themselves to keep schools running. For example, children were taught to clean, by cleaning the school itself.
- While titled as schools, many failed to provide a basic education for the children who attended. In 1930, for instance, only 3 of 100 Aboriginal students managed to advance past grade 6 in the residential school system. Many students emerged at grade twelve age levels without basic reading skills and were ill-prepared to deal with life both on and off-reserve upon graduating from the schools.
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/canada/indian-residential-school-truth-and-reconciliation-c
The skill set that these schools provide was based on two concepts:
to teach home making skills to the girls and farming and ranch work for the males. The skills taught to the girls would include cooking, cleaning, sewing and gardening. It was a belief that was held that a civilized woman, should enjoy the splendours and benefits of a civilized life. The boys would be taught how to farm and ranch, as this would allow the boys to become employable men who would be able to sustain their families.
And that the leisures that European ideas held in value, were unmatched by any other culture, in particular Indigenous and First Nations groups.
School Curricula:
While the curriculum and daily routine varied slightly at each institution, the activities and lessons were inspired by a general rationale:
- Skills were learned to prompt student’s dissatisfaction with parent’s way of life while encouraging a drive towards wage-labour activities.
- Increased emphasis on industrial skills because it became apparent that assimilation was not succeeding.
- Industrial training and skills were often “taught” in order to keep the school running. The schools operated on a per capita grants (Contract System), depending on the number of students enrolled. Many schools were poorly underfunded and forced to use the unpaid labour and production of the students themselves to keep schools running. For example, children were taught to clean, by cleaning the school itself.
- While titled as schools, many failed to provide a basic education for the children who attended. In 1930, for instance, only 3 of 100 Aboriginal students managed to advance past grade 6 in the residential school system. Many students emerged at grade twelve age levels without basic reading skills and were ill-prepared to deal with life both on and off-reserve upon graduating from the schools.
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/canada/indian-residential-school-truth-and-reconciliation-c