I really agree with your comment about teaching history at an elementary level. I went to a community school in Saskatchewan with a relatively high native population and really took the education I got there for granted as something that everybody had, until I went to high school (a rich, predominantly white school on the other side of town) where I encountered a level of ignorance and the subtle racism that stems from it that I was really not used to. It really made me value the diversity of my elementary school and the things I learned about native cultures and Canadian history there.

Last year, a petition surfaced at my University to make Indigenous Studies a mandatory class for most degrees. I was/am very much in favour of the idea, but there was quite a backlash from students who didn't want to lose one of their precious electives or pay for a class they didn't see as relevant. OP and artlutherie, what do you think about the idea?