{"id":20219,"date":"2020-11-20T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20219"},"modified":"2020-11-23T09:09:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T17:09:30","slug":"unsettled-and-striving-empower-our-youth-with-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/11\/20\/unsettled-and-striving-empower-our-youth-with-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsettled and Striving<\/em>: Empower our youth with the truth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When entering Camosun College this year, I chose the courses I did because I wanted to hear in-depth details about this country\u2019s truths that are generally kept hushed. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Once I understood that what had been taught in my middle- and high-school \u201csocial studies\u201d classes was a censored, white-washed illusion regarding the establishment of so-called \u201cCanada,\u201d I became overrun with questions. A prominent one: how could the education system believe it was preferable to blatantly lie to young citizens and think it would help them?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The years we spend within the education system are extremely detrimental to our development as people and members of our communities. Although it\u2019s not impossible, it\u2019s harder for most adults to unlearn things they were raised to believe. This is my journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Unsettled and Striving<\/em> is a column exploring the thoughts of a young woman striving toward allyship. (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The praise sung for \u201cexplorers\u201d such as Christopher Columbus was bellowed far and wide, while acknowledgement and reverence for the culture that was here long before him was virtually silenced. At my school we were told nothing about the immense wisdom, resilience, and ingenuity of the Coast Salish peoples. There were no First Nations elders or teachers, no one around to speak the traditional names of the territory our school stood on.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I was never taught what a land acknowledgment was, nor what the Indigenous name of my hometown was. I never knew the importance of respecting the earth, or that the earth was a friend, relative, and teacher. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As I learn more about the horrors that ensued post-contact, I find it harder to believe that \u201cIndigenous studies\u201d or \u201cIndigenous culture\u201d or, at the very least, \u201cHere are the traditional Indigenous names of the lands that we live and work and walk on every single day\u201d was not a mandatory class within public schools. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I have to carve out my own pathways to the accurate history of this country, but it is my dream that my children will have resources made available to them that will seek to educate, and thus empower, them right from the get-go. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Beliefs and goals manifest from a very young age. Reflecting on our childhood can be an informative step to uncover our true purpose in this lifetime. In our youth we are open, raw, and unapologetically our truest selves. Things we naturally gravitate toward during that time are things we are likely meant to pursue for many years to come. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Imagine if children were empowered with the whole truth. Imagine if they were given the tools to begin forming unique ambitions to contribute to influential causes while in those key developmental years. Not only would they avoid the distress of unlearning and relearning in adulthood, but they would always understand the value in forming authentic opinions and choosing for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When entering Camosun College this year, I chose the courses I did because I wanted to hear in-depth details about this country\u2019s truths that are generally kept hushed. Once I understood that what had been taught in my middle- and high-school \u201csocial studies\u201d classes was a censored, white-washed illusion regarding the establishment of so-called \u201cCanada,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20220,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20219\/revisions\/20220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}