Miles Halter: Leaving Home Boarding School

During the American Colonial period, the primary focus of colonists was to establish their own settlements in order to survive in the new continent. However, many of them believed that it was their responsibility to Christianize and civilize Native Americans. The educational institutions they established became the forerunners of the boarding schools which arose later in the 19th century both in the United States and in Canada (Stout 1). The aim of these schools was to resolve the so called “Indian-Problem” and to assimilate American Indians by separating Native children from their families and teaching them the American or the Canadian way of life (Trafzer, Keller and Sisquoc 14). Children in boarding schools were taught to be ashamed of and to reject their cultural heritage, ancestors and spiritual traditions (Chansonneuve 43). Moreover, boarding schools were usually underfunded, which had a negative impact on numerous aspects of school life and on the health of children (Daniels, 151). Therefore, with their harsh discipline and poor living conditions, boarding schools had damaging effects on Native people’s lives, and they contributed to many of the problems Native Americans have to face the present-day both in the U.S. and in Canada.

Truth and Reconciliation For more than a century, Indian Residential Schools separated over 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families and communities. In the 1870 's, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligation to educate Aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools. Residential Schools were run by the church and funded by the government; the students were taught English while also being forced to learn Christian customs. First Nations children were taken away from their families if their parents refused to send them.

After a quick vote, Ralph was elected leader of the stranded boys, leaving Jack jealous and vengeful. Golding expresses in the novel how people can be made powerless and put in danger due to their self image. As a way to express this, Golding uses the character, Piggy, to give the audience a sense of what it feels like to have problems and conditions that create a separation between people. Piggy is a character with more of a sensible appeal to the problems that arise in this novel, but he is dramatically weakened after being caught time and time again envying Jack and Ralph. Piggy is described as a "fatly naked" (13) boy as he and Ralph are first scoping out and entering the pool, whereas when Piggy was exiting

He runs into someone. Not one of the the boys, but a naval officer. (Golding, 183-200). Ralph, alone and afraid. Is a victim of Mob mentality.

Ralph and his group focus on survival and rescue, where as Jack and his party concentrate on hunting and savagery. In the midst of a dance consisting of Jack and his tribe along with Ralph and Piggy, they kill a boy named Simon. Each tribe begins to spiral down after their beloved conch, breaks. Another casualty occurs when Roger kills Piggy

“....I believe in immersing the Indian in our civilization and when we get them under, holding them there until they are thoroughly soaked.”, said Richard Henry Pratt. Richard Pratt founded the United States’ first indian boarding school. Carlisle Indian Industrial School was established in the year of 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Indian Boarding Schools were created to decimate traditional indian culture, and replace it with white, american culture. There were a plethora of indian boarding schools established in the United States. For instance, Concho Indian Boarding School in Concho,Oklahoma , Sante Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or or Stewart Indian School in Carson City, Nevada. These schools spanned all over the United States. In these schools, Native American children, taken from their homes and families, were taught mathematics and english, as well as trivial subjects such as farming and sewing. These schools served as a way to eliminate the culture of Native Americans.

In my life, there have many instances where I have been forced to adapt to different cultures, but the biggest culture shock by far was switching from Catholic school to public school. It could not have been any more different. The size, the people, the town, the curriculum – everything was different. It was such a different environment from what I was used to, but I soon grew to love it.

Americanization and Indian Boarding School The history of Native Americans was full of violent, cheats and sadness. From Spanish conquerors, English settlers to U. S Government, Native Americans lost their battles against these parties with greater power. As a result, their home lands, people and culture were consistently threatened by different societies.

Amy Goldwasser claims reading and writing online to be aesthetically and intellectually equivalent to the more traditional methods, in her persuasive essay, “What’s the matter with kids today?”. She is absolutely correct. Reading and writing online volutarily shows the same quantity as previous nonelectronic modes, uses the same thought process and problem solving, and reveals a less of importance for knowledge of fun facts in order to concentrate on analyzation. When compared to generations prior, this next generation is more inclined to write about themselves without pressure from others. They share key moments of their lives and display them over social media. Goldwasser claims that “They’re connected, they’re collaborative, they’re used to writing about themselves, on their own time, rather that its being a forced labor when a paper is due”. Facebook status’, tweets, and Pinterest “how to’s” are instantly posted and shared every second presenting to the world the unique segments of writing from teenagers (and adults!) all over the world. Individuals are

“When you judge others , you do not define them: you define yourself” - Earl Nightingale. In a society where people are still judging other people to try to make them look good is a low blow, you know you will not be able to judge them on their actions but on something they were born with, the color of their skin or the way the look. This is why discrimination happens every day, bigots must have a scapegoat to blow all the stress they have. But in reality they are not defining the other person because those are petty words, but the bigots actions while insulting the poor man will define the bigot . Once people have learned about how to blow all the stress they have, we can almost act as one. We would be able to win much more because it would

Throughout assimilation, there was a cultural barrier between the Indians and the teachers. At the core of this barrier was the idea that one culture was more civilized than the other. This idea can be seen in both Native American boarding schools and at St. Lucy’s. As stated in Sarah E. Stone’s dissertation, the teachers at Native American boarding schools were not “culturally familiar” (57) with the students and, as a result, treated them differently. Similarly, at St. Lucy’s the nuns saw the wolf girls as barbaric people and treated them accordingly. The teachers and nuns believed that since they were the civilized culture, they must assimilate the more savage people into their way of life and help them become as stated in Karen Russell’s

In 1870 the United States government decided that they wanted to remodel the Native American Culture. They began with forcing all Indians to live on small, unprotected land which they called an Indian reservation. Their next step was to put our Native children into extremely harsh boarding schools and have them stripped of their culture. They decided it would be easiest to take the culture away from our children instead of adults. In 1877 the Congress set aside $20,000 to reeducate all Native children, their goal was to “kill the Indian, and save the child.” Often times the schools that the children were assigned to could be 800+ miles from their homes and family. By the 1900s almost all of our native children were taken away from our families

In 1887 Native Americans were seen as uncivilized in the United States and were prevented from acquiring the benefits of American life. So in an attempt to educate and assimilate the Native American children into the American society, boarding schools were established. However, as time went on these Indian Boarding schools became so much about helping the children adapt to the American culture that they were beaten and punished if they showed any signs of their old tribal life. This idea of abolishing the outward and inward signs of tribal life within the Native American children expresses Pratt’s statement “Kill the Indian…save the man.”

I had one defining experience that really showed my transition from childhood to adult hood. I had the fantastic opportunity to participate in a residential high school, the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, and the first year I had attended this school was my junior year. Going there I had known what I was required of both academically and artistically because I had already attended both of the summer intensives that they provided for my vocal performance. But my junior year is when I had experienced this change into my adult life and when I had left behind my childhood.

Last year I moved from Guttenberg to Manchester, which moved me from Clayton Ridge to West Delaware High School. The whole move was a speedy process. Before we moved I only knew 3 people that attended West Delaware and out of those people, none of them are my age. I was upset with my parents for putting me in the position of leaving all my friends that I had finally gotten used to, to move somewhere where I didn’t know anybody. A rush of emotions were coming onto me; fear of losing friends, anger and resentment towards my family for not telling me until they had already bought the house, but also excitement because I would be starting all over again and meeting new people.