Well, in a way, I think it's a good thing for children to recognize Columbus Day, but as young adults, we know that there is more to the story than this. Columbus wasn't the first person to discover America, it was the people that walked from Asia across the Beringer Straight thousands of years ago.
Also, Columbus wasn't exactly very kind to the native people of the Americas, so I think it's okay to celebrate Columbus Day when you're younger, but as you come to realize Columbus's short commings, people should decide for themselves if he was a hero or not.
As for me, I think Columbus was more of a villian because he couldn't find a kinder more diplomatic way to deal with the natives.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree, he's evil.. lol
ReplyDeleteI don't think that we should teach kids that Columbus was the first to find America. That would be lying and would cause more problems than good. What will happen when they get a teacher that tells them the truth and they start a fight because quote "My teacher always said Columbus found America and your wrong." Can you imagine the trouble that would cause.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jacob. We should go ahead and start teaching the children the correct "discoverer" of America, and Columbus was not that person... However, I don't think children would cause fights in class over Christopher Columbus...
ReplyDeleteguys, it is a land mass with an area of 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles) do you really think it could not maybe possible have had more than one " "discoverer" "?
ReplyDeleteColumbus was the one that broke the news to the world. Thats all. It was very important to the world at the time because they had all ready fought every war that could possibly be fought over the dwindling land supply they had, and it stretched science and technology in new ways to have an entire new continent. the new land moved research and discovery along to what it is now. the world had gotten small, and this enlargement brought with it an explosion of learning and creativity.
I agree with Jacob's comment although, I agree with yours too.I think it is ok for kids to be told that as younger ages, but like Jacob said, it will eventually begin to cause problems. And like Jebria said, it won't cause that much of a problem, it's what everyone has learned from day one...changing that now will possibly cause more trouble.
ReplyDeleteif columbus isnt the discover who is?
ReplyDeletesurely not some isolated Indians from paleolithic russia, or some intoxicated vikings.
i think it would be a good idea to cause fights amoung third graders.
ReplyDeletediscussion of history would stimulate their social studies.
they could ave Socratic seminars.
or cage fights.
BUT i do not think any third grader is going to care enough to actually start any altercation or even discussion. the idea of elementary students arguing over history is ludicrous. even if they started a discussion, it would never last more than five days before they went home for the weekend and forgot everything about it.
free thought doesnt come easily to most seven year olds.
I never said that we should teach the kids that he discovered America! I only said that is is nice for the kids to learn more about the voyage and stuff because it WAS a big historical event. It's important for the kids to know the date that the New World was introduced to the rest of the world, but I guess having an acutual DAY devoted to it is kind of silly.
ReplyDelete