Columbus Day: Different Viewpoints on `Discovering' America
Growing up, my early education about Christopher Columbus didn’t drill much deeper than a sanitized version of the journeys of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. That perspective changed when a member of a New England American Indian tribe visited my eighth-grade history class. He described the devastating impact on his ancestors and subsequent generations following being “discovered” by European explorers. As philosopher George Santayana wrote, Columbus "gave the world another world." And that world was far more complex than had been hinted at in my middle school textbooks.
Bill Bigelow, co-director of the Zinn Education Project and co-editor of the Rethinking Columbus, writes that over the course of his 30 years of teaching history, he’s regularly asked students who was already “here” when the explorers' ships arrived. Not once has a student answered “the Tainos” – the name of the indigenous people who
Bill Bigelow, co-director of the Zinn Education Project and co-editor of the Rethinking Columbus, writes that over the course of his 30 years of teaching history, he’s regularly asked students who was already “here” when the explorers' ships arrived. Not once has a student answered “the Tainos” – the name of the indigenous people who
