Residential school shades of grey.


The present furore over what happened in residential schools here in Canada brings back memories from my time in Australia, which had a similar residential school system.
Living in the bush in North Queensland as a big city computer expat, I married a Canadian teacher from Alberta in 1977. She taught math and such in the local state school in Ravenshoe and subsequently got a day job teaching high school math in an Anglican residential school called "St. Barnabas" just outside of town. (Locally known as "St. Bananas : )
The school was run by a group of Anglican 'Brothers' when I first came into the community and I tried my hand teaching computers to a class of grade 10s without a lot of success.
I am pleased to say that subsequently my better half had a lot more success during her period of teaching at the school.
The kids in the school were enrolled with tuition and board paid for by their parents and guardians. They were a mixture of whites and Torres Strait Islanders, with a few oddballs thrown in as well.
The school was also a small dairy farm and the kids had to take turn at doing chores under the supervision of the farm manager.
It was a co-ed school with boys and girls in separate quarters. Notwithstanding that, boys will be boys and girls will be girls with some interesting consequences:
One of the white girls got a crush on a particularly good looking athletic Torres Strait Island boy, and he didn't mind at all.
Some other individuals did, though: The Torres Strait Island girls would have none of it and literally formed a marching troop to beat the crap out of the white girl who had dared to move into THEIR territory : )
I think the white girl left the school after that, fearing for her safety.
As I understand it, the church closed down the school in later years and it has now become the site for the state public school instead.

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