Quote:
Originally Posted by Reesonov
I mean, until you or I are sent to a boarding school explicitly designed to shame our culture...
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I agree with the commission on a lot of things, but I honestly don't think you can hold the 19th century to this 21st century standard with regards to "shame."
The deleterious effects of the residential schools are plain, but can't you also account somewhat for the motivations behind setting them up? It was paternalistic and racist, yes. But the most compassionate minds of that era thought they were serving indigenous people best by educating them and helping them assimilate.
Since we keep on throwing out thought experiments, here's another one: what if no effort had been made whatsoever to offer education to indigenous peoples in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Wouldn't that have been held up as a sign of neglect and cruelty?