Columbus Day

"America's one of the finest countries anyone ever stole.  ~Bobcat Goldthwaite"

Ahhhh! Columbus Day, one of the many holidays I have a problem with. It's not so much about the celebration, but any educated person knows that Columbus Day has a very very dark history (imagine the Holocaust having a holiday as opposed to a remembrance day). It's only because no one is still alive to know who the real Christopher Columbus was like that we do celebrate the holiday. The problem is, how do you teach about such a dark holiday in an elementary school classroom? Is it fair (or even ethically right?) to teach children lies about a holiday that they will most likely find out the truth about in the future? I mean we do the same thing with other holidays. It seems to be a consistent theme to lie to youth, but I believe that it does serve a purpose and a positive one at that. 

If I can take one thing away from public schooling its that they were good at bringing a positive message to a dark holiday. In the article "What not to teach about Native Americans", the author June Sark Heinrich discusses methods of introducing teaching of Native Americans in the classroom, and especially common errors that teachers make when attempting to teach the subject (the biggest mistake being the term "Indians"). 

The first aspect that Columbus Day teaches us is that Columbus and the natives got along very well (which is very far from the truth), but for a country that prides itself on diversity and being the melting pot of the world, what message does it send to children that we didn't get along so well in the early beginning? This can result in negative reactions in the classroom. Children sometimes need a lie once in awhile to learn a lesson and to teach ethics. So in that regard, I think I can forsake my own ethics for the sake of teaching a lesson to my students. If only to benefit them. Besides, in the future they will likely discover the truth anyway, but if they can go on long enough living the fantasy and believing this country was founded on diversity as much as they believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny, then I think that's a good thing. What ill can come from this? 

The only thing I would make sure to teach is that Columbus didn't discover America, but that he certainly discovered the Native Americans.