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K. P. Binda and Sharilyn Calliou, Eds. Mississauga, ON: Canadian Educators' Press, 2001. 225 pp, including index. $35.95.
The subtitle of this book may be a bit misleading in that it is not a study, per se, but rather a collection of twelve papers condemning the effects of colonization on Aboriginal education. Topics treated by the various authors include school finance, curriculum, teaching native languages, counseling, early childhood education and parental involvement in schooling and scholarship. The book constitutes a good indicator of antithetical thinking representative of a specific lobby group in the indigenous community. Several of the fifteen contributors identify themselves as Aboriginals.
While the majority of papers in this collection decry virtually everything that has happened to Canada's First Nations in terms of schooling over the past several centuries, this book also offers a measure of hope. Statements such as the following, however, do little to bridge the gap of misunderstanding that currently exists regarding the inadequacy of Indian education in Canada: "It must be acknowledged that Indians are poor because white people are rich, that the land, timber and minerals white people use to...