Truth and Reconciliation is a heavy topic. I often find myself asking the question, why? Why did the Europeans do so much harm to these poor innocent children? Why did they take the children away from their families? Why did they find a need to strip them from their culture, history, and language? Why did they sexually and physically abuse these children? Why did they decide to kill them? A cultural genocide? Why? This topic makes it hard for me to swallow. It breaks my heart that the parents and the children had to live their lives like this. Nonetheless, I think it is astonishing to see how far the Indigenous incorporation into the BC curriculum has come and has yet to come. The fact that we now have a national truth and reconciliation day on September 30th, as of 2021 brings me joy. As much as I think that I may get emotional when teaching this subject to my future students, I think that it is very important that they are aware of the inhumane behaviours that happened in the residential schools
New Teaching Standard Strengthens Truth and Reconciliation in the classroom