Posted on 10/11/2009 8:18:44 AM PDT by reaganaut1
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- 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.
''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' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday on Monday. 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 diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.
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.
''In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy,'' teacher Laurie Crawford said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I wonder how "Captain" Obama would have done.
“A technologically superior culture replaced a primitive one. Like it or not, it’s the way of the world. Live with it.”
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A historical truism, which so-called “free traders” would do well to ponder!
As America sends all our factories and technology, to people who hate us.
WE. Are becoming the primitive culture vis-a-vis a number of potential adversaries VERY RAPIDLY.
It’s very likely, the result will be the same, as it was when we were the technological leaders:
We are headed rapidly, to being conquered.
So, all you kids who thought Columbus was evil, go back to the land your ancestors came from and start over.
on other Native American tribes
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Or...How these “peaceful” Native American, kidnapped the wives and children of other Native American tribes or skinned alive their Native American captives.
If it is a good, meaningful thing to talk about the contribtions of Africans and African culture, and if, as we have been told since the 1960s this is the fundamental basis of positive self-esteem because feeling bad about their history was at the heart of many problems black Americans had, then why is it a good thing to teach very young children about how bad the people were who founded their own culture? We are becoming a nation with low national self-esteem - or as normal people say - no national pride. This is like telling your young child about all the bad things their grandparents did, which, though maybe true, had context and should be learned later when the child grows up and understands the nuances of life.
“I don’t think all male kindergarten teachers should be bashed this way.”
OK, fine. So I’ll toss it to you, what percentage of male kindergarten teachers do you think are homos?
He wouldn't have made it out of the harbor.
Why people continue to send their children to these indoctrination centers is a mystery to me. It can’t be for any educational value.
Shouldn't European sailors have carried back diseases Europeans had no immunity for that would of devastated the population there also?
Duh, they aren't called Indians for nothing!
She "said"? Shouldn't that be "she verbalized"? With English like that, I'm sure she's a cracker-jack teacher.
Certainly you have read some of the excuses used by so-called conservatives here on Free Republic.
Can't wait until they get to Lincoln, LBJ, Carter, Klinton and . . . . oh, yeah, leftist revolutionary hero Barack Hussein Obama!!
Got a problem with the word "discover", okay, no problem.
Got a problem with the "discovery" itself, you have a big problem, kids. Almost wanted to call them fools for being taken in. Doesn't matter if the Chinese, Vikings or the Celts had been here before that, the history of the World changed with Columbus's voyage. That's all there is to it.
FYI, Christopher Columbus was not Captain Stubing and his ships were not the “Love Boat”, “The Good Ship Lollypop” and “The Queen Mary”. Most sailors in those times were not exactly model citizens. Captains of ships in those days were taskmasters and were sometimes cruel as were the members of their crews. How can teachers justify judging Columbus in the late 1400s by 21st century standards?
Who would be equally vilified today...A
A technologically superior culture replaced a primitive one.
When some doofus starts the crap about what happened, I ask them, "What would have happened, if the 'Black Death' really depopulated Europe, and the Moslems moved in, sailed west, and reached the shores of the Americas? Or Chinese, coming from the east?"
The fact is, that the indigenes were doomed the moment any advanced civilization encountered them. Neolithic technology just doesn't support the kind of population base to hold large areas of land, and the resources thereon...
the infowarrior
Columbus was also sent to spread Christianity, oh yeah we can’t mention that either.
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