Posted by
Playful Walrus on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 1:32:16 PM
What has your government school student been taught in the last week or so about Christopher Columbus? Associated Press writer Christine Armario had an article about that, called "A Darker Side of Columbus Emerges in US Classrooms". Oh brother... er, uh,... oh sibling-or-anyone-at-all-because-isn't-it-all-the-same?
TAMPA, Fla. – Jeffrey Kolowith's kindergarten students read a poem about Christopher Columbus, take a journey to the New World on three paper ships and place the explorer's picture on a timeline through history.
Kolowith's students learn about the explorer's significance - though they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend.
"Nuanced" is codeword for "Leftist trashing of someone who actually did something". Leftists should note... Columbus was working for government! A European government, no less.
"And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy."
Yeah, he didn’t even allow his sailors to unionize. Didn't give them MLK Day off, either.
Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.
They never suffered before, you see.
"The whole terminology has changed," said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development.
"You don't hear people using the world 'discovery' anymore like they used to. 'Columbus discovers America.' Because how could he discover America if there were already people living here?"
How about he "kick-started America"? Let's face it. It was the start of a new direction in history and eventually led to the rise of the greatest nation on God's green Earth.
In Texas, students start learning in the fifth grade about the "Columbian Exchange" - which consisted not only of gold, crops and goods shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, but diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.
Well maybe the natives should have offered free universal health care to the illegal aliens?
In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year - charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.
Let's throw Thomas Jefferson in prison too - that slavedriver.
The day is an especially sensitive issue in places with larger native American populations.
Okay, how about we renamed it International Tobacco Day, to recognize a major accomplishment of the natives?
"We have a very large Alaska native population, so just the whole Columbus being the founder of the United States, doesn't sit well with a lot of people, myself included," said Paul Prussing, deputy director of Alaska's Division of Teaching and Learning Support.
Yeah, because life under the Soviets would have been so much better.
Patrick Korten, vice president of communications for the Catholic fraternal service organization the Knights of Columbus, recalled a note from a member who saw a lesson at a New Jersey school.
The students were forced to stand in a cafeteria and not allowed to eat while other students teased and intimidated them - apparently so they could better understand the suffering indigenous populations endured because of Columbus, Korten said.
I guess reenacting human sacrifice - as practiced by some native civilizations - just wasn't practical?
In Kolowith's Tampa class, students gathered around a white carpet, where they examined a pile of bright plastic fruits and vegetables, baby dolls, construction paper and other items as they decided what would be best for their voyage.
"Do you think it would be good to take babies on a long and dangerous boat ride?" he asked the class. "No!" they replied.
Did he then turn it into an abortion lesson?
Meanwhile, Crawford's Pennsylvania class dressed up as characters from the era, assigned roles for a mock trial and put Columbus on the stand. Out of a jury of 12 students, nine found him guilty of the charges.
Did they then learn that means a mistrial, and the defendant gets to either get a new trial or goes free?
Will California schools present a "balanced" portrayal of Harvey Milk? After all, every human being who every accomplished anything has been a flawed person (there's only one exception).
This kind of thing is yet another reason not to send your kids to the Leftist-controlled government schools. The schools should be focusing on accomplishment and positive examples to emulate, and handing down American culture.
When different cultures collide, especially when one is more technologically advanced that the other, it isn't pretty. Find me an example of where is has even been (all those hoping for aliens from a distant planet to come here take note)? I do not excuse any form of theft or assault, but how about some context? Were Europeans supposed to never ever go anywhere because of smallpox? They didn't really understand how it was transferred, nor immunity.
Why not use Columbus Day to teach the importance of having a good immigration and border control system?