Life in Residential Schools
Before The School Day:
The boys woke up at 5:30 am to do chores. Such as milking cows, plucking chickens, and feeding animals. At 6:00 am the girls and younger kids woke up to clean dorms and wash clothes. Everyone went to a one hour mass for the lord before breakfast. Porridge and milk was served for breakfast, but sometimes the kids were forced to eat manure and grasshopper legs that were in it.
During The School Day:
Class time began with an hour of religious of studies followed by two hours of academic studies in overcrowded class rooms. All students were sent to the cafeteria for lunch
Many cafeterias served sticky porridge and bread but certain schools forced the kids to eat rotten food that they served. After lunch was "civilization" training which was teaching the kids farming, gardening, cooking, cleaning and sewing: but these tasks became more of a job than teaching throughout the years. Kids would end up going to class less and less and working more and more. Not working hard enough during their civilization training resulted in hours of extra work in school or the field.
|
After The School Day:
After everyone was done their civilization training they had an hour of studying academic work. Supper came around 6:00 o'clock. After supper the students were allowed limited recreational time. If a student strayed off by themselves they were punished by kneeling on rock floor for hours where everyone could see. A short prayer for the lord came before an early bedtime.
Teachers
The teachers that were selected for the residential schools were nuns or other people with a teaching background that had failed in their previous job. This meant the teachers were low quality and didn't know how to educate children the proper way. Some teachers looked towards punishment to cover up for their bad teaching abilities. This made the reputation of the teachers to be very bad but a few teachers were an exception to that. They were good at their job and treated the kids the way they should have been, but were not recognized for the god deeds they had done.