Student Questions About Residential School

Student Questions About Residential School

We asked grade 10 sociology students at St. Andrew’s School in High Prairie, Alberta, to write questions related to Larry Loyie’s presentation on his life in residential school and his new book Goodbye Buffalo Bay (a true story of life in a residential school... and moving on). These excellent questions were the result.

These questions can be used to prepare a class for a residential school presentation. When Larry answers questions like these in a classroom setting, he is respectful of the age, comprehension and sensitivity of the students.

For more study material, see Larry Loyie's website: www.firstnationswriter.com

Here are the questions asked by the grade 10 students:

What was residential school?
What is a Mission?
What was residential school like?
What happened at residential school?
What was life like there?
What were some of the things that happened in residential schools?
What did the schools look like inside?
What did the sleeping quarters (dormitories) look like?
How long did you have to go to school?
Was it hard being young and not really having family around while you were at school?
Did their parents know how they were treated? Did they do anything?
How long did parents and children have to prepare before children were sent away?
In summer, when kids went home, was it celebrated?
Where did white people go to school?
Do things like that still happen?
In residential school was there lots of abuse?
What were some of the punishments in residential school?
Was Lawrence (Larry Loyie in his books) ever beaten up?
Did they have nurses or anyone to help them if they were sick?
Did many people try to escape from residential school and did they get out?
Was it hard trying to escape from the school?
What would happen if they caught you? If you escaped would they beat you?
What year did residential school end?
When you were in the school, what was your form of wealth value?
What did you do with others? Interact? Trade your value items? Or did you keep to yourself?
How long did you have to stay in school?
How did they take away the culture and language?
Do you still speak Cree?
Was it hard to become a writer?
When you started writing, what made you want to write about your childhood?
Did the residential school scar you for life?
Is there anything you wish you can go back into the past to fix?
What was the greatest thing that had happened to you in your struggling life?