In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Ninety men survived the long trip,
Tired of Columbus’ wrathful whip.
When finally he arrived on shore,
The natives of him were unsure.
The people he was sure to exploit,
Of that it seems he was most adroit.
Rather than a national hero,
Columbus is a mean, old zero.
This is not the way we learned Columbus’ song when I was young, and this is my interpretation about how they teach about our heroes these days. It seems that many schools are taking the gloves off and showing old Christopher in a different light. The light is flourescent and not very flattering as these quotes attest:
“I talk about the situation where he didn’t even realize where he was and we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy.”
“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?”
”The indigenous population was kind of waiting expectantly, almost with smiles on their faces. I wonder what this guy is bringing us?’ Well, he’s bringing us smallpox, for one thing, and none of us are going to live very long.”
My favorite is that schools actually put Columbus on trial for his “crimes” with one school finding him guilty and sentencing him to life in prison. I have no doubt that the students were presented a balanced view of the events. I am sure that the students were presented with the facts about the bloody sacrificial practices of many indigenous peoples. By “sure” I mean not really. Some of the teachers featured in the article seem excited about destroying the traditional view of Christopher.
Next in the ciriculum will be about how mean and bossy the pilgrim settlers were to the native Americans. I also look forward to reading about how they are treating George and Abe come President’s Day. Hint – both George and Abe were quite bossy.
We really have to be diligent about what our children are being taught.
