Article in newspaper paints unfair picture of Christopher Columbus
Published: October 14, 2009
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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Reader Reactions
Did any of the educators use “founder(d)“ or “discovered” in such a literal sense as you? I would also hope educators, or even laypeople, know the basics as to CC’s arrival yet the whole of the AP coverage was about balance, nuance, cultural sensitivity, and the like being added to a once one sided approach.
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As an educator myself, I unfortunately have seen too many teachers like Mr.Elemore. Perhaps Mr. Elemore should read some of the primary documents in Howard Zinn’s *A People’s History of the United States.* There were a few (too few, yes) people at the time who, even in a time of conquering peoples and slavery found Columbus and his “explorer colleagues” too brutal.
As Captain Plaid suggested, history is not to be taught without perspective. Who in the world teaches a history of WWII and the Nazis “without passing judgment based on our moral or polital leanings”? Indeed who should?
Mr. Elmore, Hateful perhaps but I do hope your degree isn’t from Auburn University. I learned about dialectical reasoning, marshaling evidence, perspective taking, and such when I came through AU’s programs long ago.
The AP piece of which you take exception is presumably like the one I’ve shortened here: http://bit.ly/4gFR98
You were rather blunt as to this Prussing fellow so being so blunt with you is perhaps fair? Did any of the educators use “founder(d)“ or “discovered” in such a literal sense as you? I would also hope educators, or even laypeople, know the basics as to CC’s arrival yet the whole of the AP coverage was about balance, nuance, cultural sensitivity, and the like being added to a once one sided approach. Indeed the positives you referenced are there and yet must the study of Columbus, or any historical figure or period, be either/or?
You wrote “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.“ Huh? So we should avoid tackling complexity or controversy? Do we just try to pour in some facts and then get out the #2 pencil?
For me, our schools helping kids learn to think and ponder, while of course covering some of the foundational knowledge that they ought to grasp, is the ideal. However, higher level thinking efforts continues to be sacrificed in our rush toward “accountability” measuring recall of at best low level “facts” via standardized testing.
Thinking like yours makes me wonder why you’re not already running a school system yet I trust you’ll go far in today’s climate.
Finally, Mary Belk’s writing on Columbus Day in the O-A’s pages is again worth reading. Please see http://bit.ly/YKWEv
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