What children are going to learn in a school named after Sir John A. MacDonald is that he was the architect of the Residential Schools, and this is what he told parliament in 1883:

"When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write...Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central...schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men." (from the TRC Report, page 2).

The children themselves will ask why their school is named after an individual who set in motion 150 years of residential schooling that ripped children away from their families; punished these children for speaking their native language, and taught them to hate their heritage.