Howard Adams (Métis)
1921-2001
Revolutionary Métis Marxist scholar and professor Howard Adams grew up in a Métis community in Saskatchewan. He was a leader in the struggle for Indigenous rights, self-determination, and socialism.
Excerpt from Chapter 12: "Schooling the Redman" in Prison Grass, 1975.
“One of the most important
phenomena in the school
system is the colonization
of students be the persons
of authority who exercise
their power arbitrarily and
oppressively. Their power is
derived from the authority
of their position and by the
grading that they give children.
Their oppressive authority
is a source of motivation of
student behaviour. Much
of the learning that occurs
involves manipulation by
educators acting according
to their assumptions about
the authoritarian purposes
of education. What is
called teaching is in reality
eliciting appropriate
behaviour from students. “
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