Preventing Aboriginal Suicide

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Preventing Aboriginal Suicide

PREVENTING ABORIGINAL SUICIDE:
DOES A SHIFT IN THE DOMINANT SCHOOLING PARADIGM
HOLD SOME PROMISE?
by
R. Lloyd Ryan, PhD
R. Lloyd Ryan, Ph.D.
P. O. Box 1072
Lewisporte, NF
Phone: 709 535 8464
email: lloyd_ryan@nf.sympatico.ca It is with growing alarm, concern and compassion that we witness the continuing (and growing?) high rate of suicide in Canada’s Aboriginal community. This phenomenon has numerous far-reaching and negative implications and, up to the present, few satisfactory explanations and fewer proposed solutions.
It is, thus, imperative that aspects of contemporary Aboriginal personal and community living that have not yet come under sufficient scrutiny be examined and analyzed, not for anthropological or abstract sociological purposes, but for intensely personal and life purposes. It must be realized that, sometimes, it is that which is most ubiquitous and familiar which may be most ignored, the assumption being that what is common is not significant. An example is parasites borne by the river that has fed us for generations, or heavy metals in our staple food, both contributing to chronic health problems, and both ignored because we expect severe dysfunction to have exotic and unfamiliar dress. It is, thus, proposed that the existing predominant model of schooling, in this case schooling of Aboriginal children, come under careful scrutiny.
Aboriginals, like most other Canadians, have accepted, now almost without question, the principle that education is the key to a secure and happy future. This principle may be as fraught with problems as the one-time equally-accepted principle that the earth was the centre of the universe and that the sun was just one of earth's satellites. Just as it was heresy to question the geo-centric universe, it is now similar heresy to question the principle, the dogma, of the value of education.
It is now being questioned!
This may not be merely a questioning of the value of education (whatever it is we mean by that). Indeed, Aboriginal communities have recognized that some elements of the schooling system have potential for negative impact on life and living. Now, having taken over some control of their educational systems, they have made some significant curricular changes ... and, that is good - as far as it goes.
The major aspect of the problem, however, does not necessarily rest simply with the content of the curriculum, although that is undoubtedly important, so much as with the ...

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