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The Early Years of the Mission School
Education and Discipline
From: Victims of Benevolence
$0.56
Native children learned the skills they needed to survive, and the beliefs, values, and codes of behaviour appropriate to their society, by a trial-and error process of observing and imitating adult behaviour and by listening to stories in which ethical concepts and morals were imbedded. Consequently, the children who entered the Williams Lake residential school came from cultures which placed great emphasis on direct experience as the best form of education. In residential schools, knowledge was to be gained not by heeding one’s own ideas and intuition, but by accepting without question the truths presented by external authorities. Strict discipline, regimented behaviour, submission to authority, and corporal punishment were central characteristics of the Oblates’ educational philosophy. The conflict affected the native population adversely.
Contributors
Elizabeth Furniss
Elizabeth Furniss was until recently an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Calgary.
