All three authors, Jean Barman, Helen Raptis, and Paige Raibmon similarly focus their articles on the use of residential schools to reinforce the subordination of Aboriginal peoples through the type and quality of education they received as well as the creation of a “vision of a schooling future that recognizes Indigenous knowledge, language, and education”.[1] By focusing on the Aboriginal youth’s education they were receiving, each author recognizes that the low academic achievement was attributed to the curriculum which ultimately was setting students up for failure. The purpose of these articles is to then acknowledge that Native peoples’ disadvantage arose from deficiencies in White cultural understanding rather than Aboriginal intellect.[2] Raptis argues that because Aboriginal children were raised in families where non-verbal communication was more highly valued than verbal, they preformed poorly in an education system where teachers both talked a great deal and encouraged verbosity.[3] Furthermore, corporal punishment was an integral part of public school management, opposing Aboriginal peoples’ belief of it not being an acceptable form of punishment.[4] The curriculum also lacked Aboriginal teachers, cultural content, and Aboriginal representation on local school boards.[5] Contributing to the poor academic achievement was the significantly less amount of instruction time as compared to white counterparts in provincial schools.[6] Native youth spent two to four hours in the classroom and were expected to get through the same curriculum and demonstrate the same levels of success in less time as compared to other Canadian children who had five hours or longer of instruction per day.[7] Raibmon also brings forth evidence that supports that the curriculum was a huge contribution to the low academic success of Aboriginal children with her example of the success of Reverend George Henry Raley’s “cottage school”.[8] Raley, a principal at Coqualeetza Residential School, acknowledged the curriculum’s failures and used them to establish a successful education system for Native children. He created the “cottage” system of education which was established to counter the unnatural effects of institutionalization on children by providing students with a home-like environment equipped with a surrogate mother or father.[9] Additionally, he believed that in order for Native children to succeed academically, educational programs needed to consist of moral, intellectual, and physical and manual components, all of which were common in provincial public schools and private schools for Canadian children.[10] As opposed to other residential schools, Raley lacked emphasis on prayer and religion in his school, focused on academic achievement rather than “practical instruction” encouraged by the Department of Indian Affairs, and emphasised recreation, sports, and organization membership as essential to character building and for academic success.[11] Under his curriculum, most of Raley’s students went on to attend Chilliwack High School when other residential school students were only expected to achieve a grade six education.[12]  With the right curriculum that addressed Aboriginal needs and their reality, Raley’s “cottage school” proved that Aboriginal children’s academic success relied on the curriculum they were receiving and did not reflect their intellect or their personal views on education.

[1]Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), “Indigenous Education,” Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 253.

[2]Paige, Raibmon, “’A New Understanding of Things Indian’: George Raley’s Negotiation of the Residential School Experience,” BC Studies 110 (1996): 22.

[3]Helen, Raptis, “Implementing Integrated Education Policy for On-Reserve Aboriginal Children in British Columbia, 1951-1981,” Historical Studies in Education 20, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 125.

[4]Ibid., 125.

[5]Ibid., 125.

[6]Barman, Jean, “Schooled for Inequality: The Education of British Columbia Aboriginal Children,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 260.

[7] Ibid., 260.

[8]Paige, Raibmon, “’A New Understanding of Things Indian’: George Raley’s Negotiation of the Residential School Experience,” BC Studies 110 (1996): 76.

[9]Ibid., 76.

[10]Ibid., 80.

[11]Ibid., 84.

[12]Ibid., 82.