Every year in early October, a day rolls around that is considered a national holiday. This is Columbus day. It celebrates the day that Christopher Columbus caught sight of the Americas thousands of years ago. In preparation for this “holiday,” schools all over America, especially elementary schools, do numerous different activities to learn about Columbus. While doing this, they are taught that Columbus was a hero that solely discovered America. However, this is not the complete truth. Students should of course be taught about Christopher Columbus, but the way they are taught and the material they are taught should be altered to express the actual facts with a more age appropriate telling of history. The voyage of Christopher Columbus and the Europeans’ impact should unquestionably be taught in schools to children. A lot of people that live in America today descend from those very Europeans. The entire voyage and “discovery of America” is the history of the continent that these children live …show more content…
However, this does not mean that he discovered it. The idea that he discovered the entire land is a lie that is often taught in American elementary schools. In reality, the Indians migrated for thousands of years to finally settle in the Americas and set up their own tribes and systems. This is a fact that needs to be taught in schools rather than the idea that Columbus discovered America. The important thing that the children understand is that Christopher Columbus’s voyage mainly ended up being a good thing for the Europeans, and not the Native Americans. Additionally, in order to effectively teach young children about the history of the Americas, schools need to be sure that they make the lessons more age appropriate for young children. For instance, leaving out the violence and sexuality would most likely be the best idea until the kids reach an older age and can understand
“As the classroom rhyme goes, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492…” states that you sailed to America but doesn’t say what he did after he got there. “ But there is more to the story of the explorer” but many people don’t know it. Many things that happened involving Columbus’s story is not told and some people never get know. The historical records has cast Columbus into the shadow of enormous
A common belief about Christopher Columbus was that he discovered the United States, in 1492. According to Michael Berliner, this is not the politically correct view because before Columbus arrived, many individuals had settled in America (Source D). These indigenous people were considered American Indians, mostly consisting of Indian, Chinese, and Mongolian individuals. When Columbus arrived in America, the natives looked up to Columbus and his people because
Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen-hundred-ninty-two. He came over from Spain in three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria and discovered America, or at least that was what I was taught in elementary school. Since then there has been much controversy going on over the issue of weather or not Christopher Columbus really “discovered” America because when he landed in San Salvador he was not alone. Native Americans already inhabited the land and they had been there long before Columbus, but this doesn’t mean that he should be atacked stripped of his dignity.
When Christopher Columbus sailed to America he was happy and proud of himself because he was the first to discover the land which is now named america, and he was also happy because he found out that there were a lot of resources found on that land which he found was necessary to take and use. According to the document A “Day after day they looked for land;They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand” this shows that the purposely are trying to find land for them to dock and discover. Additionally according to the document A “Columbus sailed on to find some gold To bring back home, as he'd been told.He made the trip again and again,Trading gold to bring to Spain” this shows that he was there not just to discover land but to make riches too and
Most children in the United States, grow up with the stories of the brave and heroic Christopher Columbus, who risked his life to connect the western and eastern hemispheres. There is even a day dedicated to his "good work" and "heroism". But the stories don't explore the whole truth. Since his discoveries led to the founding of America, history turns a blind eye to his immoral actions and the consequence of his deeds. Christopher Columbus is a villain because he enslaved, wiped out and manipulated the populations of the Native Americans in the Indies.
In the essay written by Jeffrey Hart entitled, “Discovering Columbus”, he argues strongly that, in fact, Columbus did discover America. He starts off by describing Columbus as “a genuine titan, a hero of history and of the human spirit.” He goes on to say
Thomas King’s chapter “Forget Columbus” surrounds the idea that the preconceived notions that Americans have about their own history, and the Native Americans who have resided here for centuries, are wrong. Columbus never discovered America. The
In the well known textbook, The American Pageant, the reader learns about straightforward facts and events regarding Christopher Columbus. Although the textbook provides the audience with good information, it struggles to go into great detail or depth surrounding Columbus and his voyages in comparison to the two other sources. I believe the authors did a good job avoiding anything controversial, by only including facts and referring to Columbus as a “successful failure” instead of a hero or barbarian. The book didn’t carry much detail and wasn’t that “juicy” of a source, but fulfilled it’s job as a history textbook. The document I choose to include was a map of Columbus’ voyages. The map
When Columbus sailed to prove that the world was round, according to the website Livescience.com, he was late by two-thousand years. Ancient Greek mathematicians already have already proved that the world was round and not flat. Also according to this website, Columbus’s education was self taught and he believed that Europe was wider, and that Japan was further away from China’s coast. These are the reasons that he was going to try and find shorter trade route to Asia. When a student hears Columbus’ name they may instantly think that he was the first person to discover America. Although there were millions of Native Americans who were living in the New World, Columbus is the man who is getting all of the credit for finding the New World. There were also other travelers who had discovered America before Christopher Columbus.
The celebration of Columbus “discovering” the Americas is a lie as the land was already inhabited by the Natives. He thought he had landed upon India, not the Americas. The politically correct name is “Native Americans” for a reason, because they were here first. Even though their existence went undocumented, the Indians were still a vital part of American history and present day culture as well. As
In the beginning of October, millions of kids are relinquished from school to celebrate a holiday dedicated to one man: Christopher Columbus, a man perceived as a valiant hero credited for discovering America in 1492. Generations of Americans have passed down the belief that Columbus was an amazing explorer, but tend to overlook the horrific deeds that Columbus committed. Despite his monumental accomplishments, Columbus was a historical figure closer to Hitler than to Martin Luther King on the morality spectrum. Due to his use of slavery, treatment of Native American slaves, and the tricks he used to deceive others, Columbus was not a hero but rather a villain.
Even though Columbus was not the first person to step foot in the America’s, he was the first person, from the Eastern Hemisphere, to discover it. For example, when we discover a new species on an island, we may not have known that it existed, but the other living creatures there knew that it did. While Rebecca Dobbs in Document B is right that the Americas were not empty by any stretch of imagination and people lived there and knew about this part of the world, others did not know about it. However, in a letter to Queen Isabelle, Columbus states that they have landed on an island and the people there
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean and discovered what we now know as the Americas… or so it’s been taught. In all actuality, there were already Native people who had been living in the continents for thousands of years. Since 1937, the US has used this “discovery” as a holiday known as Columbus Day to celebrate a man who established the beginning of colonization of the New World. While Columbus did begin the colonization of the Americas, he was not the one who discovered them. History tends to be told from the privileged perspective which is why it’s taught that Columbus discovered these lands. The celebration of Columbus Day promotes the idea of colonization and the marginalization of Native Americans; people also believe it
Christopher Columbus is a famous explorer that is celebrated yearly in America, with his national holiday, Columbus day. However, many people do not know all the negative things he did. America should not celebrate Columbus Day because of his negative legacy, his actions, and his lack of accomplishments. Slavery, death, and rape were all part of Columbus’ negative legacy. He had negative actions such as he brought dogs to attack people, caused Native Americans to end their lives, and cut Natives hands off.
Most history textbooks take Christopher Columbus and put him on a pedestal. These textbooks make Columbus the fantastic hero who was the first person to discover the Americas. These textbooks were wrong in idolizing Columbus. One text called The Lies my Teacher Told Me contradicts these textbooks. The text states that there were already many different groups of people that landed in, explored, or colonized the Americas. The first group of people was the ancestors to the Native Americans that were living there when Columbus came in 1492. Also the Norse established a colony in Greenland for 500 years (Loewen, 8). While there, the Norse explored parts of North America (Loewen, 8). This evidence proves that Columbus was not the first person to discover the Americas. Columbus began the demise of the current Indian cultures in the area. While Christopher Columbus and the