Types of Education

Something that I kept coming back to while reading both the student papers is the question of whether one can consider assimilation as a form of education.  What are the goals of education? Traditionally speaking, it's seen as a way to "better" one's self. In the context of the 1930's, assimilation to a more "distinguished" culture was viewed as a way of bettering and empowering one's self. So, perhaps, education of any form must be viewed in context to the time and place in which it was instituted.

When I read about how the T.R.S. school was built out of an army base and soft-power policies began to replace hard-power policies(Strand, et. all 9), and how language plays such an important role in allocating blame, such as by "the passive construction of 'are put,'" my mind drifted back to a paper I had once read concerning the shift in militaristic tactics concerning shooting to kill in war (3).  Prior to "educating" soldiers about the enemy, most soldiers were unable to shoot to kill and only after WW2 were soldiers "re-trained" to essentially forget that shooting=killing. This type of education, albeit learning, sits under a gray area along with the culture of assimilation that the children at the T.R.S. school were learning.