Blog 1-Kassa Valz

Blog 1

            As I was reading through this article, the disturbing concept of children taking their own lives allowed me to recollect the similar tragedy within the aboriginal community. For my first blog I would like to recall some perspectives on Inuit education. Heather E. McGregor’s (2010) “Inuit Education and schools in the Eastern Arctic” discusses the importance of local control in education, cultural awareness and understanding.  With the advent of residential schools aboriginal communities/families became segregated, children were placed in residential schools where they were taught to be Eurocentric (i.e White); [aboriginal] parents were left without their children for upbringing and nurturing. This caused a great deal of challenges both for the young and older aboriginal community. As the aboriginal youth completed their and returned home ‘educated’ by Western standards, they were unfamiliar with their local customs and traditions which brought a sense of alienation. The students were not able to acquire the jobs their education promised; they were now unemployed and unskilled in the traditional sense. This feeling of alienation and loss of identity amongst the aboriginal youth was overwhelming has brought about great challenges. The Aboriginal community’s young had dealt with these challenges with a very lethal consequence, as was noted in McGregor (2010):

“They dropped out in swarms year after year, creating a society of half-educated young men and women who could not adjust to either of the cultures they were being brought up in. They became sons and daughters without destiny, without pride in their pasts and without much of a future-dropouts, social sores, listless vegetables. Many of them chose the easy way out by committing suicide.” (p.89)

As someone who has attended most of their formal education in Canada, we tend to be unaware of the injustices that can happen within our boarder and unfortunately even our schools. I decided to write about this experience because it had a profound impact on me as minority; it provided another perspective of education which I was never exposed to. The M.Ed. program has allowed me to think critically about problems and concern that are still present within schools.  

Reference:

McGregor, H. E.  (2010).  Chapter 5: Reclaiming the schools: Inuit involvement in the local periods.  Inuit education and schools in the eastern arctic.  (pp. 116-149).  Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2010/InuitEducationAndSchoolsInEasternArctic.pdf