Low aboriginal graduation rates a concern for all Canadians: report

An alarming number of First Nations students living on reserves are not graduating from high school, a recently released report says.

According to the report of the Ottawa-based Caledon Institute of Public Policy — titled Aboriginal Peoples and Post-secondary Education in Canada — high school graduation rates of aboriginal people are far below those of people in the rest of Canada, and the situation is particularly bad on reserves.

The report, which is based on census data, found that 58 per cent of on-reserve aboriginal people between the ages of 20 and 24 had not graduated from high school. Among all people across Canada, the comparable 2001 rate was 16 per cent.
CBC News
-----------------------------
I know, crazy idea, but what happens if teachers stop telling us that we are 'dumb and to not worry about graduating anyways as we won't make it that far' Or how about teachers trying to .. .hmm.. teach?! I know, crazy thought there, and maybe even teach truth! I grew up listening to the teepee people on the coast (what the #$*(@#) and when I suggested that maybe that information was wrong, I was kicked out of class. The system is set up for us to fail, so maybe instead of figuring out where we went wrong, figure out how to fix the system first.

And then for those of us that do make it and graduate, God forbid if we actually try to go to post secondary school! What the heck, don't we know our place? According to most academic institutions it sure isn't at University. When I first went to university, they took me out of the classes I signed up for, and put me in 'learning skills', 'introduction to university life', 'introduction to the university library', and a low level into to english class. When I went to complain, the nice registrar clerk, patted my arm and said "It's not your fault hon, your whole race is slow"..... ..... ...... (calm breathe), lets say simply there aren't enough bad words to express how that made me feel.

Some institutions are changing, the University of Victoria in BC, Canada has started a great project to support undergrad aboriginal students at University, so we have 1 out of how many universities trying to make a change?

Its slow, but as a people, we have to keep fighting, go to school, piss off every teacher you have if that is what it takes for you to graduate, prove them wrong, get school, get trained, get jobs as thier supervisors, and fire them :-)