The Indian Schools

During American Studies, we were given a journal prompt that had the question, "Should public schools teach their students American Values?" I said yes and supported this by saying that it would give us the knowledge of our American Culture and not replacing the culture we knew our entire lives, instead adding a second one on. My perspective changed when we were given the scenario of having this same question when the young Indians were forced to go to school. These were not ordinary schools, but were schools that taught the ways of becoming a "civilized" person which was a white man. They had to forget the VH culture in which they grew up with and adopt a new culture that they didn't want to be part of. They had to give up their traditional clothing for tighter ones that the white folk wore. They even lost their identity when they were forced to use an American name. They were not even allowed to speak their native tongue. I then realized that my argument became invalid because of the ways they were taught of the so-called American Values. Instead of learning the values as a second culture, they were forced to use it as a primary one and to replace their native culture. In addition, their identity was stripped from them and became a white man, earning the title of civilized through lots of loss and little benefit.