Kids' Activities
Jane Lind presents ...
Sammy Goes to Residential School
Written by Mary Lingman
Illustrated by Susan Ross
Theme: Native Experience, Ages 7 to 10
Sammy Goes to Residential School
Sammy is a seven-year-old Cree boy who has to go to residential school away
from his family and the reserve because his parents spend the year on the
trapline until spring.
Sammy is unhappy about leaving his family, and the preparations are an
ordeal—having his grandmother cut his hair short with a big scissors, and
being scrubbed all over by his mother.
But worse things happened when he got to school. He had to get undressed in
front of the supervisor and the other boys to have a shower and he was given
a number, 122. As if that were not bad enough, he was not allowed to speak
Cree, which made him worried. He didn't know much English, but the other
boys promised to help him, and he felt better.
Sammy gets used to the routines of school that at first were so foreign to
him and he enjoys learning many new things. In the spring when school is
over, he learns that the residential school will be closed and next year
there will be a school in his village. He will be able to live with his
grandmother and his aunt while his parents are on the trapline the next
year, and he can still go to school.
At the end of the book, the author includes a note about residential
schools, which were closed in Ontario in 1976. The adverse effects of these
schools on several generations is well-known, and this story touches lightly
on some of these on one child.
Questions
1. Why did Sammy have to go to residential school?
2. How was school different from his life at home?
3. What did he like about school?
4. What did he not like?
5. Why did Sammy have to go to the residential school for only one year?
Project
Choose your favourite part of the story and draw a picture to illustrate it.
from the
Theme Catalogue and Teaching Guide for Children's Books
written for Penumbra Press by Jane Lind
© Jane Lind
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