Reading the Hare article pinched a nerve for me. It reminded me of a made for TV Canadian movie called Where the Spirit Lives (click to view in new window) which came out in 1989.  I remember my impression of the movie as a young boy coming to know the dark yet true past of Canadian Heritage.  As a Canadian born Chinese, who’s great great grandfather helped build the railroad, I think it made me somewhat more sensitive to this “painful legacy” that Canadians share.

Having watched the movie again in adulthood and learning about Indigenous Knowledge in Education, I think the film does a remarkable job in depicting what these schools were like, for students and teachers.  I’m sure much worse things happened that could not be presented in the movie, but it fits in with what Hare describes as “the denigration of indigenous knowledge that was embedded within traditional cultural practices, values, ways of living, and languages…and the inter-generational trauma it (residential schools) left for individuals, families, and communities.” (p. 98 & 101)

With my Christian background, it also saddens me how deceptive and powerful religious lies can be, and the danger of misguided zeal in many ‘missionary’ work – past and present. Well, I don’t have an answer for how we can learn from past mistakes, but as Lee Brown and Hare point out, there needs to be some kind of “nurturing of emotional, social, cognitive, and spiritual development” that promotes, rather than destroys community. And we are starting to really learn that the old industrial-age education model is outdated and needs serious reform.