While doing a research on residential schooling in Canada, I came across this website. It’s an educational website on “healing the legacy of the residential schools”. It’s divided into the following 6 section:
- Blackboard: You can experience an interactive history of residential schools in Canada
- Map: You can travel through the map and timeline to visit schools and explore the history of residential schools in Canada
- Bookcase: You can select textbooks, the dictionary and teacher’s guide. This section is beneficial to SS and history teachers.
- School: You can explore Mohawk Institute Residential School in 3D. This will help you visualize what the RS was like back in time.
- Projector: You can listen to the RS survivors and their lives before, during, and after residential schools.
- Exhibit: This section is a photo gallery.
I discovered some information on residential schools in Canada from this website and used it for my final project.
This is an amazing site!
I’ve used it with a class in a community that had many survivors. Many of the students knew about the local residential school but it had burnt down so they were really excited to look at photos of other residential schools and get an idea of what the local one might have looked like.
One of the students, though, was from a community several hundred kilometers away. One of the most powerful moments of my career was when a she was going through the list of schools and found the one her mother attended. As she explored the information on the site I could see in her eyes a total new understanding and perception of her life history.
When I went to school residential schools were secrets that the generation before us whispered about when they thought we were asleep. The silence around the topic was just as scary as the memories they shared with each other. I am glad that the silence is gone and that all students have an opportunity to look back at this event as a way to understand the present.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I also like this site because students can do a virtual 3D tour of a residential school. 🙂
No matter what, history is history. It’s something that should be remembered. That’s what I like about this site. As you said “silence is gone”.
Enjoy the site!