Impact of Residential Schools

What is the intergenerational impact of residential schools and how do we deal with it in our classroom?

I think the first thing we as teachers need to understand is that we will have students in our classroom that are the new generation that is taking back their lost identity. Many of these students will be coming from homes where their parents/grandparents are survivors. These survivors are learning how not to pass on the trauma that they experienced. So the best thing we can do as teachers is be patient, understanding, and their biggest cheerleader as they are learning what it means to have an identity.

I feel that the original, is a loaded question.
We know that the impact of residential schools intergenterationally is trauma. passed through generations.
I have had it explained to me in relation to a family holiday celebration. Not knowing why you do the thing, and not having an explanation for why someone else did the thing, but still doing the thing when that someone else is no longer there. This could be in relation to why you put the star on the tree last, or why you always baste the turkey 3 times not 4 or 2. You just do, and you don't consciously know why.
The survivors of residential schools had their lives forever changed within the walls of such institutions. They took what they were told there and even if they tried not to, sometimes even subconciously, they applied some of what they were "taught" upon their own families/children/etc.

I don't know that it is something to be dealt with in the classroom, rather understood and respected through a nature vs nurture lens.