What connections could you make to an essay you read? Have you ever been caught in a storm? Had an encounter with a stranger? Gotten into a fight? Been lost? Kept a dark secret? Been ashamed of your home? Moved? Found yourself in a dangerous situation? What emotions do these writers capture that you can relate to?
I read "Safeguard Your Lives" by Jan Wong, and I didn't really feel a personal connection to the essay, but I had read a story about this time in China called "The Forbidden City" and a boy from North America came to China just before the soldiers started shooting everyone.
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Inderdeep Lidhar
3/15/2012 09:42:17 am
In the essay, "Growing Up Native," Carol Geddes describes the lives of Native Canadians as extremely discriminatory. She talks about school using her own experiences and the experiences of others, who were so unlucky as to go to residential schools. As she describes her academic life, I started to become more and more appalled. It doesn't sound fair at all and I think that's the most important point she tries to make. I really like how she ends the essay with issues that are relevant today. It's a nice way to sum up her points.
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Avneet Parmar
4/1/2012 08:25:18 am
I agree with you Inderdeep. It’s not fair that they had to go to residential schools and face the humiliation and discrimination just because they were not of the same culture. The many types of abuse that they had to face were horrible and still many of the scars are healing. It was hard for them to have a good education but it was nice reading that Carol Geddes went on with her education after many years where she thought she couldn’t go to university because she was native.
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Vedant Kapila
3/27/2012 11:11:45 am
In the essay "Growing Up Native" by Carol Geddes, I was hooked on to the essay. I have heard of residential schools and such, but i never thought how bad of an experience it was for kids to go to such a place. Sure i felt bad, but I wonder how the kids felt after such a horrific experience.
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Trevor Lukan
4/1/2012 03:14:27 pm
I also read "Safeguard Your Lives" by Jan Wong. I found the writing style particularly interesting, as the events were laid out in chronological order very precisely, with exact times. While I hardly noticed the times themselves, I did notice the wide range of them that indicated just how long this event transpired for.
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