Public Education For Certain People
...Canadian education like Egerton Ryerson championed the cause of school for everyone; regardless of gender, ethnicity, or social standing. A noble ideal and to some point perhaps achieved, but participation does not equal success. Schooling in early Canada was not what it is now. It was a time of growth and a new nation’s social development. Like a newborn in the hands of inexperienced parents mistakes were inevitable, unfortunately these mistakes were not recognized by the generation that made them. Canadians in the early 19th century did not allow equal access to schools. Many people were not comfortable with their children sharing classes with other genders and minorities. Those deemed inferior or lower were not given the luxury of choice.
Native children were dealt the cruelest blow. The Canadian government did deliver on their promise to educate all Canadians, in the native Indians case they got more than they asked for. Taken away from their families they were forced to attend church regulated schools (The promise of Schooling Paul Axelrodd pg 72 ). S.Contenta paints a picture of Young native children being swallowed into a hidden curriculum that enforced beliefs in opposition to their ancestral culture (Egerton Ryerson and the hidden curriculum). The destructive hidden curriculum has all but destroyed the native culture to this day. What most Canadians do not realize is that the education that was forced on them, under the premise of helping them to join civilized society, was not in conjunction with public education. Natives despite this being their ancestral land were not allowed to attend school with the dominant white class instead they were taken away to residential schools (Axelrodd pg 73). Since they were not allowed to attend public schools. Native children were educated by the charity of the church (mission school syndrome). As a result the...
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