Columbus Day…a national holiday??? It shouldn’t be. These articles only confirmed what I already knew of this misrepresented historical figure.
It is evident that the truth about Christopher Columbus is either being ignored by parents and teachers or falsehoods are persisting due ignorance. One search on Pinterest and you will be bombarded by a proliferation of adorable arts and crafts projects commemorating his great achievements with only a rare mention of the fact that Columbus was a money hungry explorer who erroneously landed in the Caribbean took advantage of the kindness and generosity if the indigenous people. Much like a modern day politician he owed the people who supported his voyage a return on their investment. He chose to enslave the indigenous people in an effort to pay back his supporters at home.
When I arrived to substitute teach the other day, the work included adorable step-by-step instructions to draw Christopher Columbus and his ships. Wow, how am I going to handle this one? I am covering for another teacher who has provided the curriculum she wants taught and I philosophically disagree with what I am being asked to do. Oh, wait, or they can have a book or extra recess at my discretion… Perfect, how about both!!! While I was able to dodge teaching this lesson, I still feel that somehow I failed the children in that class by walking away knowing what they would learn tomorrow. What are teachers supposed to do when they are directed to teach something they know is detrimental and inaccurate?
Celebrating Christopher Columbus’ achievements is akin to celebrating Hitler’s success at killing the Jewish people to accomplish his goal of purifying the German gene pool. Are we willing to overlook Columbus’ crimes because he crossed an ocean (landing in the wrong place, might I add)? Should we then excuse Hitler of his crimes and instead celebrate his idea of producing a cheap car that all Germans could afford. Is the Volkswagen a big enough legacy offset his violent treatment of the Jewish people? Of course not! People would be outraged at the idea of celebrating the accomplishments of Hitler and the Nazi party yet we happily hang up little Susie’s painting of Columbus’ ships. We would put a quick end to the antics of any child running around shouting “Hail Hitler”, but we allow our children to recite “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” without flinching. Why are we so inconsistent? What causes us to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed by some while condemning others?
Are Americans ignoring the truth about Columbus in order to keep a day off? Are our convictions that easily bought and sold? Is it possible that we are willing to live in a country that celebrates a terrorist to garner eight hours off from our jobs?
Were today’s adults that well indoctrinated to believe that Christopher Columbus was a hero that we are unable to see the truth, even as adults with access to factual information that contradicts what we were taught in school?
Do so many people learn only what the education system requires to earn a diploma, never branching off to investigate or learn outside of the classroom, that they remain ignorant to facts and ideas not spoon-fed to them by educators? If this is true, our obligation to provide the best and most accurate information to students is imperative and emphasizes the burden of educators to encourage critical thinking and create lifelong learning.
The following paragraph seems to quantify the overwhelming beliefs of our American society: Michael Berliner using the primitive living conditions of the indigenous people as justification for the brutal actions of Columbus contending that despite their hardships suffered they are better off because of the advances brought to them by western civilization saying: “Prior to 1492, what is now the United States was sparsely inhabited, unused, and undeveloped. The inhabitants were primarily hunter/gatherers, wandering across the land, living from hand to mouth and from day to day. There was virtually no change, no growth for thousands of years. With rare exception, life was nasty, brutish, and short: there was no wheel, no written language, no division of labor, little agriculture and scant permanent settlement; but there were endless, bloody wars. Whatever the problems it brought, the vilified Western culture also brought enormous, undreamed-of benefits, without which most of today’s Indians would be infinitely poorer or not even alive.” (http://capitalismmagazine.com/2008/10/columbus-day-a-time-to-celebrate/) Do you think the parents of the children killed by Columbus felt that the benefits brought by western civilization were worth the cost? How different would our world be today if we had taken the time to learn from these people and understood the value of their relationship with the earth instead of steamrolling their way of life to strip their land of riches and to take their people as slaves. At the very least, I have to imagine our planet and the animals that depend on it for survival would be much safer than in our world where we are seemingly motivated exclusively by money.
People make assumptions that their way of doing things is the best way. I think we still carry that feeling of superiority and continue to push people from other countries, societies and religions to accept our way as the only right way of doing things. We fail to understand that others may have their own views. This is why teaching empathy from the very beginning is so important.
What message do we send students by celebrating a man who owned slaves and was willing to massacre an admittedly benign and generous group of people?
We are in a difficult position as educators. How do we simultaneously tell students the truth about the debaucheries of Christopher Columbus and give them a day off from school to celebrate his success? It is an enormous contradiction. He succeeded at enslaving people, taking advantage of people and purposefully killing people to gain control over the natural resources on their land. For committing these atrocities he was given a federal holiday and we as a nation have allowed this tradition to continue despite knowing the truth. Our children deserve the truth. The truth is that he wasn’t looking to discover new lands, only the resources and the riches they would bring him. He went in search of India and failed to find it, instead landing in the modern day Bahamas. We perpetuate fantasies about who he was having children make cute little ships and sing songs about history that never actually happened. The land was already inhabited when he arrived. He simply landed in someone’s back yard and bullied them into giving him their homes. What happens when students are old enough and wise enough to seek out the truth for themselves? What do they think of us, their educators, for perpetuating such an insensitive fiction. Does it imply that we condone his actions? If we are willing to perpetuate these falsehoods, students will only be able to conclude that we feel he was justified in his actions or that we are ignorant of the true history. Are we too lazy to fully educate ourselves before we pass knowledge along to our students or are we caving into societal pressures and find ourselves willing to tow the party line instead of standing up for what we know is right? What if we tested children on what they learned about Columbus Day? Do we expect them to regurgitate the fabrications or are we obligated to accept truthful answers that contradict the school curriculum?
I want my students to learn facts, not partial truths and sugarcoated versions of reality. My concern is, how will parents respond to my teaching their children this more disparaging yet more honest history of a beloved historical figure. Parents in my son’s elementary school are indignant in response to the new way of teaching math. I can only imagine the reaction to my changing history even if it is the truth.
Perhaps requiring students to learn the truth as part of a research project done with the cooperation of the parents will serve to educate both generations. I love the idea of encouraging students to research Christopher Columbus on their own and allowing them to make their own book about him. Allowing them to subsequently compare it to the books in Barnes and Noble will not only teach them about Columbus, but also about the importance of choosing resources wisely and looking for authors with different perspectives. What a great way to lay the foundation for always questioning and always trying to understand the views of people on either side of an issue before making a judgment!
I refuse to proliferate the legacy of a geographically and morally lost man who has been erroneously identified as a hero!
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