The missionaries sought the conversion of the Native people to Christianity. That had been their mandate since the Récollets came to New France early in the seventeenth century.

      By the inter-war period all the male missionary bodies involved in residential schooling had either come round or been driven to an approach that combined cultural assimilation with their underlying drive to achieve religious conversion.

      Until nearly the middle of the twentieth century, by which time Native peoples’ often bitter experiences had made them more assertive, they had never thought it necessary to say explicitly that they did not expect and would not accept cultural assimilation as part of that educational package.Until well into the twentieth century, Native communities that were affronted by the assimilationist pressures of residential schooling tended to respond with passive, rather than active, resistance.

      For students who experienced the residential schools, what was important was the poor instruction, cultural oppression, inadequate care, overwork, severe discipline, and, in all too many cases, outright abuse.

      The half-day system that operated in most institutions until the 1950s ensured that Native children would be at a disadvantage in learning either an academic subject or a work-related skill. The explanation for this bizarre situation - a school system structured so that it could not succeed pedagogically - lies in the fact that for two of the three partners in residential schooling, effective instruction was not the highest priority.

      In stark contrast to almost all Native parents and leaders, government and church were strongly committed to the use of residential schools as agents of assimilation as well as providers of academic instruction and job training.