In my search for ideas for my final paper in ETEC 521, I came across the following article that describes in more detail what went on in residential schools in Canada. My main focus is:
What are the long term effects of the residential schools and how does this effect indigenous language fluency for future generations?
One of the things that went on in the residential schools was that students were forbidden to speak their own language and were punished if they did so. I find this so incredibly sad. Just to imagine not letting your own language leave your lips, is unfathomable. When I think of myself (I often talk to myself when I work through a problem, or for example, count out loud when adding things together). For example, I’m sitting out on my porch right now, talking myself through these weblogs. I’m sure if someone recorded me, I would have been speaking English to myself for the past three hours! For another example, my husband (who is from the French part of Switzerland) always does math and calculations out loud to himself in French (even though he is completely fluent in English). I do the opposite. I’m fluent in French but when working out numbers etc., I always revert to doing the calculations out loud in English (since that’s the language where I learned how to count). Therefore, when I think of residential schools abolishing the speaking of indigenous languages, the students must have been beaten, even when they didn’t mean to speak the languages (but it would come out of their mouths anyway).
I was just thinking of this exact concept when I was teaching my French Immersion students last Monday. I was telling a group (in French) to not speak English amongst themselves. It’s scary to think that if I was teaching in a residential school, I would have to punish my students each time they spoke English. However, it’s not exactly the same situation. Most of these students (the fortunate ones) go home to their families every night where they speak their native tongues and are loved and can share with family culture and events. This was not the case in the residential schools.