What is "mission school"

Mission \Mis"sion\, n. [L. missio, fr. mittere, missum, to send: cf. F. mission. See Missile.]

1. The act of sending, or the state of being sent; a being sent or delegated by authority, with certain powers for transacting business; comission.

   Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late, Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves.
   --Shak.

2. That with which a messenger or agent is charged; an errand; business or duty on which one is sent; a commission.

   How to begin, how to accomplish best His end of being on earth, and mission high.
   --Milton.

3. Persons sent; any number of persons appointed to perform any service; a delegation; an embassy; as, the Russian mission to the United Nations.

   In these ships there should be a mission of three of the fellows or brethren of Solomon's house.
   --Bacon.

4. An assotiation or organization of missionaries; a station or residence of missionaries.

5. An organization for worship and work, dependent on one or more churches.

6. A course of extraordinary sermons and services at a particular place and time for the special purpose of quickening the faith and zeal participants, and of converting unbelievers.
   --Addis & Arnold.

7. Dismission; discharge from service. [Obs.] Mission school.

   1. A school connected with a mission and conducted by missionaries.

   2. A school for the religious instruction of children not having regular church privileges.

      Syn: Message; errand; commission; deputation.

A mission school or missionary school is a religious school originally developed and run by Christian missionaries. The mission school was commonly used in the colonial era for the purposes of Westernization of local peoples. These may be day schools or residential schools (as in the Canadian Indian residential school system).

Mission schools were established in India as early as the 16th century. They eventually appeared on almost every continent, and persisted in some regions to the late 20th century.

These schools often adopted an evangelical and "heavily denominational" approach to religious education, with the intention of producing new teachers and religious leaders to propagate Christianity among the local population. They also provided academic and vocational training, and usually discouraged the traditional practices of the local people. Mission schools were sometimes government-funded, for example in the US "when Congress felt less inclined to provide the large sums of money needed to establish government schools" to educate the American Indian population.