The reality of the current education situation in Ontario is that Aboriginal students are consistently achieving and succeeding less in all subject areas than non-Aboriginal students. The reasons for this are vast and complex but much has to do with the troubled past of Aboriginal people since the advent of Europeans in North America. The European education extended unto Aboriginal communities was designed to lift Aboriginal peoples from their ‘savage’ state so that they could, as ‘civilized’ people, benefit from and contribute to modern European society. The most comprehensive vehicle of Eurocentric education with the goal of Aboriginal assimilation were residential schools, whose horrific legacy still haunts Aboriginal peoples across Canada today. Since the era of residential schools great strides have been taken in reconciliation and achievements made towards the goal of greater Aboriginal self-governance and control over their own education. Yet, Aboriginal communities are still faced by many deep and troubling challenges and many improvements in regards to Aboriginal communities and education remain to be made. This essay will examine how the history of Aboriginal people in Ontario has impacted the experience of Aboriginal children and youth in schools today.
To begin to understand the state of Aboriginal education today, it is important to look back at how it got to where it is. Traditional Aboriginal education was something much different than the educational system we have today in North America. It is important to know what Aboriginal education was like before colonisers came to what is now the country of Canada. Aboriginal education was not held in today’s European style classrooms. The “classroom” was the world surrounding the community. The “subjects” taught began with oral traditions and practical experiences of real life. Aboriginal people learned about their culture and traditions from their elders through the teachings of storytelling. Family and group socialization was also a large part of their education, where “children learned traditional values such as humility, honesty, courage, kindness and respect.” (Reforming First Nations Education). Traditional Aboriginal style of education was practical and useful to their way of life. It can be said that Aboriginal people were very much alike because “whatever their ecological base and specific lifestyle, Canada’s aboriginal peoples shared certain cultural attributes.”(Barman 3) However, things changed when European settlers came to Canada. Not only was their world flipped upside down, but with it their traditional way of education.
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