Posted on 10/12/2009 8:05:15 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
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, but they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend.
“I talk about the situation where he didn’t even realize where he was,’’ Kolowith said. “And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy.’’
Columbus’s stature in US classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday today. 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.
“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?’’
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 also of diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Yes, just so.
I have some inlaws here in Vermont that have a Mexican connection on the grandparent level. They recently bought a ruined house in a southern Mexican town, near the cathedral, and are fixing it up. He is a pretty shrewd guy.
One of the first things they did, evidently, was to befriend the chief of police in that area, who gave him the necessary permissions and introductions. Otherwise, forget it.
Now, now; we all owe a debt of gratitude to all these modern teachers for making us aware of the violence and perfidy of Columbus and all the White followers from Europe.
Thanks to our modern school system, we now know that those evil White people - shame on them - disrupted a continent of peaceful, happy, and contented Nature worshippers who spent all their time in prayer, fasting, charitable acts, and other Good Works.
Lots, actually. I can't give percentage across all tribes but the Mohawk were mostly Catholic. Micmac. Abenaki. Navaho. Huron. And lots more tribes that weren't, were Methodist, Anglican, Baptist, and Presbyterian. This is actually one of the HUGE lies about American Indian history that the left steadfastly refuses to tell....that most of the Indian tribes converted to Christianity and practiced it faithfully for hundreds of years.
I'd say only a minority of the tribes didn't have at least some sizeable Christian community.
oops....make that a TRUTH they refuse to tell. Got lost in my own wording there. :)
Yes, the tribes in French areas of influence were mostly Catholic—many of them converted by the Jesuits, who were very different then from what they are now, sadly.
“I talk about the situation where he didn’t even realize where he was,’’
For kindergardeners, he should also talk about his perserverence and determmination. Not about how “mean and bossy” he was. Plenty of time for that later on. The biggest thing they need to understand is that if not for Columbus and other dead white men like him, they would be sitting in their mud huts picking nits off of each other.
Look, I don’t have any genuine contempt or problem with American Indians. I’m just tired of all the bs surrounding their history and the way our history gets criticized and distorted because of it.
I know, no harm done. And you’re absolutely right, there is a lot of BS. Just trying to make sure that we keep our focus. :)
Note: this topic is from 10/12/2009. Thanks ConservativeStatement.
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