<P> Parents and family members regularly travelled to the schools, often camping outside to be closer to their children . The number of parents who made the trip prompted Indian Commissioner Hayter Reed to argue that industrial schools, like residential schools, be moved greater distances from reserves to make visiting more difficult . He also objected to allowing children to return home during school breaks and holidays because he believed the trips interrupted the civilizing of school attendees . As Reed explained in 1894, the problem with day schools was that students returned home each night where they were influenced by life on the reserve, whereas "in the boarding or industrial schools the pupils are removed for a long period from the leadings of this uncivilized life and receive constant care and attention". </P> <P> Visitation, for those able to make the journey, was strictly controlled by school officials in a manner similar to the procedures enforced in the prison system . In some cases visitors were altogether denied access to their children, while in others families were required to meet in the presence of school officials and forced to communicate in English . For parents unable to speak the language, verbal communication with their children was impossible . The obstacles families faced to visit their children were further exacerbated by the pass system . Introduced by Reed without legislative authority to do so, the system restricted and closely monitored the movement of Indigenous peoples off reserves . Launched in 1885 as a response to the North - West Rebellion, and later replaced by permits, the system was designed to prevent Indigenous people from leaving reserves without a pass issued by a local Indian agent . </P> <P> Instruction provided to students was rooted in an institutional and European approach to education . It differed dramatically from child rearing in traditional knowledge systems that are generally based on' look, listen, and learn' models . Unlike the corporal punishment and loss of privileges that characterized the residential school system, traditional approaches to education favour positive guidance toward desired behaviour through the use of game - based play, story - telling, and formal ritualized ceremonies . While at school, many children had no contact with their families for up to 10 months at a time because of the distance between their home communities and schools, and in some cases had no contact for years . The impact of the disconnect from their families was furthered by students being discouraged or prohibited from speaking Indigenous languages, even among themselves and outside the classroom, so that English or French would be learned and their own languages forgotten . In some schools, they were subject to physical violence for speaking their own languages or for practicing non-Christian faiths . </P> <P> Most schools operated with the goal of providing students with the vocational training and social skills required to obtain employment and integrate into Canadian society after graduation . In actuality, these goals were poorly and inconsistently achieved . Many graduates were unable to land a job due to poor educational training . Returning home was equally challenging due to an unfamiliarity with their culture and, in some cases, an inability to communicate with family members using their traditional language . Instead of intellectual achievement and advancement, it was often physical appearance and dress, like that of middle class, urban teenagers, or the promotion of a Christian ethic, that was used as a sign of successful assimilation . There was no indication that school attendees achieved greater financial success than those who did not go to school . As the father of a pupil who attended Battleford Industrial School, in Saskatchewan, for five years explained: "he cannot read, speak or write English, nearly all his time having been devoted to herding and caring for cattle instead of learning a trade or being otherwise educated . Such employment he can get at home ." </P>

Who were the students of the residential schools