Rethinking Columbus on Columbus Day
When I was a kid, American history was presented in very clear --albeit unrealistic -- terms. There were the good guys and the bad guys. Columbus, at that time, was invariably in the camp of the good guys--though no one bothered to ask any native Americans if they agreed with that interpretation.
Now, things have changed considerably as many teachers aim to present a more balanced perspective of what happened. Not unexpectedly, this has led to a whole new vocabulary for describing what occurred.
For example, the word "discovery" often no longer appears in connection with Columbus. The native Americans--who are believed to come across from Asia clearly "discovered" our lands well before Columbus. And, then of course, there are the Vikings who also did some amazing things in the way of exploration long before Columbus was born.
So in some places, students start learning about the "Columbian Exchange" — which consisted not only of gold, crops and goods shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, but diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.
And in some places, even the word "holiday" does not appear in connection with this day. Understandably, the idea does sit well in places with large native American populations.
It's great that the oversimplifications and distortions that pervaded my school years are being corrected. On the other hand, Columbus did leave a major mark in our history and in the history of the world. Changes of the sort he brought about can rarely, if ever, be categorized as good or bad. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, the author of several books related to Columbus, including "1492: The Year the World Began" captured the complexities when he stated that, "Every hero is somebody else's villain. Heroism and villainy are just two sides of the same coin." It may be far more challenging to set up the teaching to reflect this constellation, but it would be far more accurate.
