Grace Hollenberg
T00524488
December 4, 2017
Tracy Penny Light
Hist. 3510
Research Paper
No matter where you are in Canada, the family is often what life revolves around. Looking at the history of children’s roles in and around the home, they play a substantial role whether home is in the city or on a farm. The implementation of compulsory schooling had different effects on rural, urban, and First Nations families, but in all cases it had a large impact on family dynamics. This paper will look at how compulsory schooling inflicted change within the home and what compulsory schooling meant for the family in both rural and urban settings. As well, this paper will address the changing roles of children and the benefits and the horrors of schools compulsory attendance. What we find in urban centers is that children went from being wage contributors to being prepared for future economic prosperity through education. Within First Nations communities, compulsory schooling was a means of assimilation and meant separation from a child’s community, family and culture, which had dire lasting effects. The value of education eventually increases in all parts of Canada through labor laws and mentality of how children are viewed. The shift from exploiting children, both as wage earners[1] and as means to assimilate a population, to protecting them is clear.
As parents play an important role in their children’s lives and a strong teacher-parent relationship can help create a more positive educational experience, Milne’s article contributes an understanding as to why there is an educational inequity associated with Indigenous families and the school system. Milne[2] links the intergenerational effect of racial discrimination in residential schooling towards Indigenous people to the idea that, as parents, their interactions with schools and teachers do not align with the schools expectations. He connects the mistrust of the system to the fact that residential schooling suppressed indigenous language, culture and was notorious for having problems surrounding student health, child labor and abuse. This research is important in contributing to the impacts residential schools continue to have on Indigenous people and their inability to comply with the dominant standard of schooling expectations. Milne suggests the formal education system, controlled by provincial and federal jurisdictions, may be perceived as a means of continued assimilation and colonial oppression.[3] The connections Milne is able to make in his research are important for recognizing the impacts residential schools have on Indigenous people.
The compulsory Residential School system had impacts on Indigenous people that are still prominent today. With over 150 000 aboriginal children in Canada attending residential schools between 1867 and 1996, Donna[4] shows how far reaching the negative aspects of residential schools were. Her research shows “a family member attending residential school is correlated with poorer educational outcomes,” and, “50% of individuals who identify as aboriginal reported at least one family member attended residential school.”[5] This shows how the mass trauma of the Indian Residential School system (IRS) was able to have such a horrific impact on a large portion of the Indigenous population. Matheson’s research demonstrates how extensive abuse perpetrated by the IRS staff, and pervasive student-to-student abuse disturbed the collective wellbeing of the students.[6] Punishments by staff included public beatings, humiliation, food deprivation and solitary confinement.[7] Matheson connects the feelings of shame brought on by abuse and the constant reminder from authorities that being Indian was shameful, to pended up anger by the students- of which they were unable to express towards anyone except their peers. Matheson is able to conclude that such intragroup aggression would fundamentally alter the social identity dynamics that might otherwise have protected the esteem and identity of Indigenous children.[8] These articles are important in understanding how the residential school environment started disturbing children’s psychological process the minute they entered the compulsory system and how many generations of children it interrupted.
Neeganagwedgein points to the IRS as the main effort to achieve assimilation, with the government trying to reach its goals through the aboriginal children. [9] The schools were one large assimilation system. Children were removed from their homes and placed in the schools, strategically positioned with the intent to sever all ties with their parents, community and culture. Through this article, Neeganagwedgein describes the process of the schooling system in its attempt to achieve assimilation, including public punishment for children if found speaking their Indigenous language or to a member of the opposite sex. This article is an important contribution in finding out how the residential schools impacted the Indigenous population. It gives insight to the trauma such young children were exposed to and the effects of this mass trauma. Neeganagwedgein and Eigenbrod[10] both demonstrate assimilation taking place. “Our belief in the superiority of the white race grew stronger as we grew older.” “Let white values intervene in relationships with her family: “How can they live like that? I asked myself repeatedly.””[11] The brainwashing of the children was ever apparent with the clear message of cultural inferiority. This is an important insight, as this understanding that the children had of culture inferiority is an untrue, but prominent, feeling that many minority groups have today. The result of this feeling leads to PTSD in many people. As demonstrated in Fountaine’s [12] article, these schools were not intended to support or educate the aboriginal children. Rather, they kept the Indigenous people out of the way of the settler developments.[13] Contributing to Neeganwedgein, Fountaine brings in the fact that these policies targeted children, to ensure continuous destruction from one generation to the next.[14] “It was pounded into me that our people were no good, that our language was one of savages, that we were less than our keepers.” Here Fountaine’s article contributes emotion and shows the lack of love that was provided for the children. Lack of parental and emotional support, especially at the ages children were forced to attend the IRS, can cause delayed and damaged psychological development and create problems that are long lasting. It is quite clear that compulsory schooling for First Nations children was for a completely different purpose than their white counterparts.
Compulsory schooling for First Nations in Canada was vastly different compared to those of white urban and rural families. Though compulsory, schooling was not an attempt to assimilate a population, but rather to educate children to be economically prosperous in the future. Compulsory schooling did have some positive aspects. Where it wasn’t trying to attain assimilation, it was proactive in eliminating the child labor force. Within urban centers, upper middle class Anglo Canadians were first to adopt the new concept of childhood, which considered children to be both fragile and highly malleable, requiring protective yet stimulating environments in order for their full potential as individuals and citizens to be developed.[15] This cultural transformation emphasized schooling for work and a self conscious nurturing of children and adolescence.[16] With this view, they sought to impose control over the family life of the lower middle class.[17] Though their hearts may have been in the right place, the changes implemented had large effects on the home life of lower class Canadians. In rural settings, children were key in helping around the house, starting as toddlers, their responsibilities only increased with age. Whether they were plowing, caring for animals, or helping in the kitchen, they were beside their parents, sharing the constant strenuous effort to build a living. This being said, many parents were anxious for their children to get an education.[18] In urban settings, many relied on their children’s participation in the labor force to support the family economy and in turn the family’s well-being.[19] Anti child labor and compulsory education legislation demonstrates the middle classes misunderstanding – families didn’t want their children to work, they needed their children to work. Middle class promoters of free education lacked the insight of children’s importance in contributing to the family economy, and that for many, where children weren’t contributing; they were a burden on the rest of the wage earners in the family. However these new social standards for children meant they were encouraged to attend school and gave a new opportunity to many. For example, a boy working in the coalmines was beneficial for both employees and employers. It was a steady job and often led to a life’s work in mines, which had a positive impact on the family economy. However, new legislation reflected new views and decreased child laborers in mines.[20] This being said, where literacy was needed, particularly in rural settings, it was strongly encouraged. On the Prince Edward Islands, the combination of leasehold as the predominant form of land tenure, the lack of faith in the legal system / profession, and the chaotic way in which settlement had proceeded combined to create a uniquely urgent need for literacy.[21] This allows one to see that a family’s views on compulsory schooling, and how it effected them, depends on their prior position in the economy and their individual needs as a family unit.
The development of mass education that came with industrialization had profound implications for both children and youths, but these changes did not occur at the same time for both age groups or for all social groups. We see in Neff’s article that by 1871 education had become compulsory for four months of the year for children aged 7-12, and that anyone between the ages of 5-21 had the right to attend it,[22] however, many children only went to school when it coordinated with their duties at home. This was the same for rural and urban families that relied on their children’s source of income or hands. But as time went on we see a shift of more children attending school, and steadily decreasing after age 12. This was a luxury not enjoyed by the First Nations communities, as it was required by law for their children to attend the Residential Schools, and if they refused they would be jailed.
Compulsory schooling had diverse effects on residents of Canada. In some cases it was positive, giving children access to education. In other cases, such as for many First Nations, it had horrific lasting impacts on families, which are still evident today. In both cases, compulsory schooling affected everyone. Positive or negative, its prominence in history has had an important impact on the education system we have today.
Bibliography
Bullen, John, “Hidden Workers: Child Labour and the Family Economy in Late
Nineteenth-Century Urban Ontario.” Labour/Le Travail (Fall1986): 163-87.
Clubine, Christopher, “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 126-139
Cochrane, Jean. “Children on the Farm.” Beaver 72, no. 4 (Agust 1992): 12. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed October 2, 2017).
Darroch, Gordon. 2001 “Home and Away: Patterns of Residence, Schooling, and Work Among Children and Never Married Young Adults, Canada, 1871 and 1901.” Journal Of Family History 26, no. 2: 220. Complementary Index EBSCOhost (accessed November 3, 2017).
Donna L., F. (2016). The Intergenerational Effects of Residential Schools on Childrens Educational Experiences in Ontario and Canada’s Western Provinces. International Indigenous Policy Journal, Vol 7, lss 3 (2016), (3),
Eigenbrod, R. (2012). For the child taken, for the parent left behind”: Residential School Narratives as Acts of “Survivance. English Studies in Canada, 28(3/4), 277-297.
Fountaine, T. (2016). Stolen Lives: A Survivor of Canada’s Residential School Program Welcomes a New Education Resource. CCPA Monitor, 22(6), 20-22.
Hurl, Lorna F. 1988. “Restricting Child Factory Labour In Late Nineteenth Century Ontario.” In Labour / Le Travail, 87-121. n.p.: Athabasca University Press, 1988. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost(accessed November 4, 2017).
Matheson, K., Bombay, A., Haslam, S. A., & Anisman, H. (2016). Indigenous Identity Transformations: The Pivotal Role of Student-to-Student abuse in Indian Residential Schools. Transcultural Psychiatry, 53(5), 551-573.
McIntosh, Robert. “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronoto Press, 2012: 126-139.
Milne, E. (2016). ‘I Have the Worst Fear of Teachers’: Moments of Inclusion and Exclusion in Family/School Relationships among Indigenous Families in Southern Ontario. Canadian Review of Sociology, 53(3), 270-289. doi:10.1111/cars.12109
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2014) ‘They Can’t Take Our Ancestors Out of Us’: A Brief Historical Account of Canada’s Residential School System, Incarceration, institutionalized Policies and Legislations Against Indigenous Peoples. Canadian Issues, 31.
Neff, Charlotte. 2000. “YOUTH IN CANADA WEST: A CASE STUDY OF RED HILL FARM SCHOOL EMIGRANTS, 1854-1868.” Journal Of Family History 25, no. 4: 432. Complementary Index, EBSCOhost(accessed November 4, 2017).
Robeson, Virginia R., and Patick Douglas. 1977. Upper Canada in the 1830’s. n.p. : Toronto : Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1977., 1977. Thompson Rivers University Catalog, EBSCOhost (accessed October 4, 2017).
Robertson, Ian Ross. “Reform, Literacy, and the Lease: The Prince Edward Island Free Education Act of 1852.” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 56-71
Sager, Eric W. “Women Teachers in Canada, 1881-1901 in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 140-165.
[1] Bullen, John, “Hidden Workers: Child Labour and the Family Economy in Late Nineteenth-Century Urban Ontario.” Labour/Le Travail (Fall1986): 163-87.
[2] Milne, E. (2016). ‘I Have the Worst Fear of Teachers’: Moments of Inclusion and Exclusion in Family/School Relationships among Indigenous Families in Southern Ontario. Canadian Review of Sociology, 53(3), 270-289. doi:10.1111/cars.12109
[3] Milne 2016
[4] Donna L., F. (2016). The Intergenerational Effects of Residential Schools on Childrens Educational Experiences in Ontario and Canada’s Western Provinces. International Indigenous Policy Journal, Vol 7, lss 3 (2016), (3),
[5] Donna, 2016
[6] Matheson, K., Bombay, A., Haslam, S. A., & Anisman, H. (2016). Indigenous Identity Transformations: The Pivotal Role of Student-to-Student abuse in Indian Residential Schools. Transcultural Psychiatry, 53(5), 551-573.
[7] Matheson, K. 2016
[8] Matheson, K. 2016
[9] Neeganagwedgin, E. (2014) ‘They Can’t Take Our Ancestors Out of Us’: A Brief Historical Account of Canada’s Residential School System, Incarceration, institutionalized Policies and Legislations Against Indigenous Peoples. Canadian Issues, 31.
[10] Eigenbrod, R. (2012). For the child taken, for the parent left behind”: Residential School Narratives as Acts of “Survivance. English Studies in Canada, 28(3/4), 277-297.
[11] Eigenbrod, R. 2012
[12] Fountaine, T. (2016). Stolen Lives: A Survivor of Canada’s Residential School Program Welcomes a New Education Resource. CCPA Monitor, 22(6), 20-22.
[13] Fountaine, T. 2016
[14] Fountaine, T. 2016
[15] Hurl, Lorna F. 1988. “Restricting Child Factory Labour In Late Nineteenth Century Ontario.” In Labour / Le Travail, 87-121. n.p.: Athabasca University Press, 1988. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost(accessed November 4, 2017).
[16] Darroch, Gordon. 2001 “Home and Away: Patterns of Residence, Schooling, and Work Among Children and Never Married Young Adults, Canada, 1871 and 1901.” Journal Of Family History 26, no. 2: 220. Complementary Index EBSCOhost (accessed November 3, 2017).
[17] Hurl, 1988
[18] Cochrane, Jean. “Children on the Farm.” Beaver 72, no. 4 (Agust 1992): 12. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed October 2, 2017).
[19] Hurl, 1988
[20] McIntosh, Robert. “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronoto Press, 2012: 126-139.
[21] Robertson, Ian Ross. “Reform, Literacy, and the Lease: The Prince Edward Island Free Education Act of 1852.” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 56-71
[22] Neff, Charlotte. 2000. “YOUTH IN CANADA WEST: A CASE STUDY OF RED HILL FARM SCHOOL EMIGRANTS, 1854-1868.” Journal Of Family History 25, no. 4: 432. Complementary Index, EBSCOhost(accessed November 4, 2017).