Just a little background here...I am currently a student at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education and will be receiving my M.Ed. in Social Studies Ed in May 2011. For one of my classes I had to read a book on what we might call the "Columbian Exchange" and two other articles on the story of Christopher Columbus and its impact on education, specifically SS Ed in America. It lead me to believe that often times, when teaching and in other areas of life, we choose to take the path of least resistance instead of making the hard decisions and fight the battles to change people's understandings of issues which have long been discussed. Below is my take on this issue and my critical interpretation of how 'we' teach "Columbus" in the United States today.
The notion of the “myth” of Christopher Columbus is something which I was somewhat familiar with due to several college classes and my reading of the book, A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, in which he discuss the devastation Columbus brought to the natives of the Americas. I was exposed to this myth early on in my school career as I think most if not all of us were, and was taught that Christopher Columbus was a hero and I thought to myself, wow I share a name with this great guy! It doesn’t seem so special or positive now, given the destruction and deconstruction of this myth in favor of a more accurate understanding of the man and what he did or did not do with regard to his journeys to the Americas at the end of the fifteenth century. What was so jarring to me is how this myth began, why it got started, and how it has thoroughly infiltrated not only our education system, but our popular history in such a deep and ensconced manner.
In reading several pieces on this topic it seems inconceivable that the myth of Columbus would have lasted, but as we all know it did. As described both in Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen and "Columbia, Columbus, and Columbianism," by Thomas Schlereth this myth was created as a means of early eighteenth century men finding benefit it attaching the growth of the nation to its “earliest” European founder. I do not dismiss the importance of this notion immediately, as I do think that there was merit for these men to look for a common history among them following the difficult and life changing revolution. Also, given the time of the creation of this myth, it is surprising that they would look past other histories, particularly that of the natives, due to attitudes on race and religion, as Loewen points out. What is inexcusable is that this myth has been able to live in our educational system for over two hundred years, with only little resistance in secondary schools across the country. To simply disregard years of history and deeper understanding of a man and event is plain disrespect for the study of history and does a disservice to us as a nation. The real story about the migration of people from one land, which was familiar to them, to a new continent, as discussed by Alfred W. Crosby in Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 and once again by James Loewen, is one which was hundreds if not thousands of years in the making. Not only that, in some ways it is much more interesting and insightful than the myth/story which we have been bred to believe since the day we first learned we had a day of for Columbus Day. Why do teachers do this?
This simple response, going back to my first writing of this semester, is that it once again is the path of least resistance. If we as teachers play along with the game and maintain the story, which has been promulgated for the last two hundred years, and is now somewhat of an archetypal ‘truth’ in our collective history, then our job is really easy, and we do not have to do the hard work of changing what our students ‘know.’ However, if we do this we are not really doing our jobs and are doing more harm than good. These types of incidents in history and politics, where teachers are afraid to get their hands dirty by truly making their students struggle and grapple with difficult material in a meaningful way, must not escape us. We as teachers should not fall into place and maintain a system that is factually wrong, simply because it is easy or fits into our national story. These are not the type of skills we would not want to teach our students and as role models we should show our students that we are willing to engage in material that may challenge what we think is right, and in that process look for what is truth. While the myth of Columbus and the spirit of Columbia served its purpose in helping to bring a nation together, we must realize that it is time to end such a myth in favor of that truth which we seek.