Residential School System: State-Sponsored Bullying?

The Residential School System: Was it a Form of State-Sponsored Bullying?

From as early as the mid 1800s through to the late 1900s, scores of Aboriginal children were compelled to attend residential schools that sought to, amongst other things, assimilate the said children into the dominant culture. In Canada, we had the Indian residential schools, whereas in the U.S. there were the American Indian boarding schools. Over time, there has been a lot of controversy regarding not only the conditions those youngsters who attended the residential schools experienced, but also the rationality of forcibly immersing children into cultures they were not familiar with. Some have equated the residential school system to some form of state-sanctioned bullying.

Discussion

Compelling children to discard their cultures, in favor of the dominant culture, was a form of bullying. To begin with, it is important to note that as Sinclair...
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