Article in newspaper paints unfair picture of Christopher Columbus
As an educator, I typically read news items about the classroom with unease and the AP article about modern viewpoints of Christopher Columbus (Oct. 12) only reinforced my apprehension. No serious student of history truly believes that Columbus discovered the Americas, but that’s not even the point about Columbus.
What he did do was attempt the impossible by taking an enormous chance, risking lives, ships, investments, and enduring unbelievable hardships to reach his goal. For better or worse, his voyages kicked off a new era in European exploration that changed the world.
The article gives an unfair snapshot of educators across the nation and how they teach about Columbus.
One teaches his kindergarteners that Columbus “was very, very mean, very bossy” while fourth-graders put him on trial and find him guilty of assorted crimes. Paul Prussing, the deputy director of Alaska’s Division of Teaching and Learning Support, assures us that “Columbus being the founder of the U.S., doesn’t sit well with a lot of people.”
Well, that’s because he didn’t discover the United States and no one thinks that except you, Mr. Prussing.
Hopefully, there are many educators teaching our children that as we learn about the past we can’t pass judgment based on our moral or political leanings.
Great historical figures each had their own foibles as do we. Without Columbus, where would we be today?
Charles Elmore
Salem
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