Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Cultural Awareness Sees School Districts Across America Vary Widely in How They Teach Explorer's Story

(AP)  Christopher Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe the explorer's namesake holiday on Monday.

Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.

"The whole terminology has changed," said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. "You don't hear people using the world 'discovery' anymore like they used to. 'Columbus discovers America.' Because how could he discover America if there were already people living here?"

In Texas, students start learning in the fifth grade 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.

In McDonald, Pennsylvania, 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year - charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.

"In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy," teacher Laurie Crawford said.

Of course, the perspective given varies across classrooms and grades. Donna Sabis-Burns, a team leader with the U.S. Department of Education's School Support and Technology Program, surveyed teachers nationwide about the Columbus reading materials they used in class for her University of Florida dissertation. She examined 62 picture books, and found the majority were outdated and contained inaccurate - and sometimes outright demeaning - depictions of the native Taino population.

The federal holiday itself also is not universally recognized. Schools in Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle will be open; New York City, Washington and Chicago schools will be closed.

The day is an especially sensitive issue in places with larger native American populations.

"We have a very large Alaska native population, so just the whole Columbus being the founder of the United States, doesn't sit well with a lot of people, myself included," said Paul Prussing, deputy director of Alaska's Division of Teaching and Learning Support.

Many recall decades ago when there was scant mention of indigenous groups in discussions about Columbus. Kracht remembers a picture in one of his fifth-grade textbooks that showed Columbus wading to shore with a huge flag and cross.

"The indigenous population was kind of waiting expectantly, almost with smiles on their faces," Kracht said. "'I wonder what this guy is bringing us?' Well, he's bringing us smallpox, for one thing, and none of us are going to live very long."

Kracht said an emerging multiculturalism led more people to investigate the cruelties suffered by the Taino population in the 1960s and '70s, along with the 500th anniversary in 1992.

However, there are people who believe the discussion has shifted too far. Patrick Korten, vice president of communications for the Catholic fraternal service organization the Knights of Columbus, recalled a note from a member who saw a lesson at a New Jersey school.

The students were forced to stand in a cafeteria and not allowed to eat while other students teased and intimidated them - apparently so they could better understand the suffering indigenous populations endured because of Columbus, Korten said.

"My impression is that in some classrooms, it's anything but a balanced presentation," Korten, said. "That it's deliberately very negative, which is a matter of great concern because that is not accurate."

Korten said he doesn't believe such activities are widespread - though the lessons will certainly vary.

In Jeffrey Kolowith's kindergarten class in Tampa, Florida, students read a poem about Columbus, take a journey to the New World on three paper ships and place the explorer's picture on a timeline through history.

Kolowith's students learn about the explorer's significance - though they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend.

"I talk about the situation where he didn't even realize where he was," Kolowith said. "And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy."

Fifteen miles (24 kilometers) away, in Seffner, Florida, Colson Elementary assistant principal Jack Keller visited students in a colonial outfit and gray wig, pretending to be Columbus and discussing his voyages. The suffering of natives was not mentioned.

"Our thing was to show exploration," he said.

Meanwhile, Crawford's Pennsylvania class dressed up as characters from the era, assigned roles for a mock trial and put Columbus on the stand. Out of a jury of 12 students, nine found him guilty of the charges.

"Every hero is somebody else's villain," said Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a scholar and author of several books related to Columbus, including "1492: The Year the World Began."

"Heroism and villainy are just two sides of the same coin."

[lorenzodamas]

Columbus - The Untold Story to be Published in Spain
NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Madalena, Pico, Azores, Portugal, 10/26/2009 - Controversial Christopher Columbus is about to get even more controversial. New findings incriminate Columbus as a crafty spy for the crown of Portugal, according to the author of COLUMBUS: The Untold Story, to be released November 24, in Seville... http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/59551/

[6591Hou]

It is an easy exercise to rationalize away the magnitude of what the Columbus expedition brought about. He was a product of his era and not someone that we can judge from our time because we have different world perspective than 600 years ago.
That entire era was brutal, the poor in Europe were victimized in ways we can't begin to comprehend by the landowners and the nobility - and they brought their prejudices and inhumanity with them. The question of whether he was a hero or a villain is too subjective and pointless to be of any merit, he was a human being of his time who embarked on an exploration that surpassed the imaginations of most of his contemporaries. Good and ill came of it, and ultimately his passion for pursuing the unseen and unknown shore destroyed him.

[whosaid1]

I was about to make a post...but, after reading your's...I realized that you had made the points I was going to....well done!! Some folks just can't avoid the examination of historical figures using todays norms....as you pointed our, "it don't work"

[MagicThunder]

I do not understand the current defamation going on of Christopher Columbus in the United States.
On wikipedia he is accused of killing ?millions himself?.
And in many articles he is accused of indirectly being responsible for nearly wiping out the Native American population.
What a joke. We only have to open our eyes and look around at the CURRENT evidence.
In the new world, we have the northern area, English speaking Protestants for the most part.
In the southern areas, south of Mexico, we have the Spanish and Portuguese speaking areas.
Look at the current inhabitants, their bloodline, their genetics, the Native American mix is clearly seen in the southern areas. Clearly, the indigenous peoples south of the United Stares fared better. Who wiped out whom?
Look at the U.S., how many people with Native American blood live on your street?
Consider Andrew Jackson?s infamous quote ?The only good Indian is a dead Indian.?
The current erroneous trend of defaming Christopher Columbus is bogus. Just look around, you can see the truth.
Anti-Catholicism may be at the root of the current non-sense. Regarding slavery, who is the biggest culprit? Mexico outlawed slavery long before the United States?this included Texas. And then the U.S. captures Texas and brings back slavery.
We need to get history right and stop exaggerating the negative aspects of Christopher Columbus? brave exploring; usually attributing to Columbus the evil work of some desperate people that followed him. Columbus helped bring the advances of Western Europe in most fields of human pursuit to the indigenous people.
Believe it or not, Christian ideals of how we should live are superior to constant tribe warfare and cannibalism.
Duh?

[ianlou]

Question: What was the difference between Explorers and Pirates?
Answer: Explorers stole from resident natives, Pirates stole from explorers.

[ianlou]

"Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?"

Neither. He was a man with a drive to exploit anything and anyone he could with little regard for those he hurt on the way.

Christopher Columbus was our first Republican.

[6591Hou]

Your comment has some truth in it - the motivations of the majority of the explorers were fame and fortune. Expeditions were expensive and had to be funded with whatever they could find that had value. Spain and Portugal wanted wealth, that's why they predominantly hunted gold. England and France wanted the land, they wanted to constantly enlarge their empires in competition against each other.

[MPHgrad]

It is wonderful to see the encouragement of critcal thinking among students. When I was taught about Columbus, it was a glorified image of the Spanaird who brought civility to the New World. Were it not for my mother, I would not have known about the disease, the confusion, or the destruction, intentional or not, that Columbus brought to the west.

Also for the author of the story, decimate means to reduce by 1/10. I know the populations were reduced by greater than one/tenth. Seriously people, this is a grade school issue.

[texbelle123]

Living in caves?!!?? Depleated vegetation??!!!

The Natives of this land gave Europeans things like corn, potatoes, tomatoes, advocadoes, chocolate. The Cherokees had a written Constitution long before the white boys tried it.

Idiot.

Educate yourself or back off. For us who are of Native descent, celebrating Columbus day is like a person of African heritage celebrating the day the first slave ship landed in Charleston Harbor.

[dragon8me]

Not only that it was the native Americans that gave our founding fathers the idea for our type of government. Europeans were ignorant about how to live outside their type of civilization.

[TPS2]

The Cherokees had a written Constitution long before the white boys tried it.
by texbelle123

Sequoya developed the alphabet for the Cherokee language in the early 1800s, around 1820 actually. The majority of native cultures in the Americas did not have a system of writing; their history and traditions were committed to memory and recited. Sorry to discredit your profound insight into the accomplishments of "white boys," but you are wrong.

[cindyrp]

You forgot tobacco and syphilis. Yea, you also forgot Columbus and his ban freaked out when he discovered on his third trip that many of the indigenous people were cannibals. Oh, then there was the slashing and burning of forests, and scalping their neighbors.......please you get real all people groups have the good the bad and the ugly. The native were not saints, just another people group.

[dragon8me]

I don't know why he's credited with "discovering America". The native people discovered it thousands of years ago. As for Europians, the Vikings we're the first. Archaeologist have discovered caucasian skulls as old as 13,000 years in North America. There is evidence of Celt, Sumarian, and Egyptian's in North America thousands of years ago. They say history is written by the victors, and western Europe has written history for a very long time. It's time to let science write history instead of ideology.

[Midwestchristian]

I certainly wouldn't call him a hero, but he was necessary in order pave the way for other immigrants to come here. If it weren't for his accidental discovery many of us would still be in Europe.

[garyl615]

If you ever want to read any eye opening book "An UNDERGROUND EDUCATION" by Richard Zacks is it. Page 347 states "Columbus rightly deserves credit for many firsts, but one of his first has been routinely overlooked in Americn textbooks.
Christopher Columbus was the "first slave trader" in the New World.
He returned from his first voyage with ten live Indians he had kidnapped, and these were paraded along with parrots through the streets and road of Spain.

P.S. The person who said we would still be living in caves if it were not for Columbus, F.Y.I. The United States Of America.....Amerigo Vespucci!

[MPHgrad]

It is wonderful to see the encouragement of critcal thinking among students. When I was taught about Columbus, it was a glorified image of the Spanaird who brought civility to the New World. Were it not for my mother, I would not have known about the disease, the confusion, or the destruction, intentional or not, that Columbus brought to the west.

Also for the author of the story, decimate means to reduce by 1/10. I know the populations were reduced by greater than one/tenth. Seriously people, this is a grade school issue.

[rickwar]

"Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?"

Neither, he was a product of his times an explorer.

Think about it were Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong heors or villans? Hey they left trash on the moon and a lot of trash and toxic chemicals here on earth to blaze the trail.

Events happen, one also has to consider the time and situation when they took place.

[rafterman1]

"Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?"

Neither. East was bound to get West eventually and Columbus just happened to be the dink that did it first (assuming Vikings and Chinese didn't do it first of course). It's just the natural flow of history and that itself isn't good or evil, it just is.

[armyoftwelve]

None of the above. Columbus was a daring explorer, not a humanitarian.

Still, it was his discovery that changed the world so radically. To that extent, he does deserve some honor. My wife is one-fifth Maliseet and the rest French-Canadian--she would't even BE here if Columbus didn't come to America (not to mention most of Mexico and El Salvador, etc.)

So have a happy Columbus Day, especially if you're an Italian-American.

[stn_sage]

Villain. His troops garrisoned native indigenous peoples working them to death in mines. Whole populations were wiped out...MILLIONS of people!

He was an explorer, but he was also a CONQUEROR...which was the European standard of his time!

Honorable? To enslave and work to death, naked natives in mines?!
I don't so...but that's MY opinion! Someone else may feel differently!