"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue..."
As many of you know on Gather, I am a true believer of experiential education....our intellect is stimulated by curiosity, self-discovery, and actively engaging our minds and our bodies in active and hands-on activities. Many of you also know that long before I was a kindergarten teacher I was a student of history, having both a B.A. in European Studies and a Masters in Far East. With those two things in mind, is it any wonder then that raising my three sons, I combined both these area to make the subject I loved exciting to them. As a result, on various trips throughout this great country, we would take the time to playact various events. In Concord, with our good friends from Alaska and their three children we reinacted the Revoltionary War. The kids thought it was funny that Zach at four years of age wanted to be a Redcoat since none of the others wanted to don the coat of red! My good friend Mark, also a student of history, was the slave auctioneer, in Charlestown, South Carolina as he brought each of the six children up on the slave block and discussed their attributes before asking for bids. Throughout our travels whether we were in Williamsburg or Jamestown, Philadelphia or Gettsburg, we would make history come alive.
In the fall of 1992, Zach our youngest came home from school all excited, "Mum, did you not know that this is the 500 Anniversary of Columbus discovering America? We have to have a big celebration....a very big one!"
By 1992, I wasn't all too sure I wanted to celebrate Christopher Columbus coming to America. First of all, he wasn't the first explorer to land on these shores; secondly, were not the Native Americans here first? How can you "discover" something that already has been discovered? But how do you tell a 9 year old that what they are learning in school might not always be the truth. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue and ask more questions.
"So Zach, how were you thinking about celebrating this holiday?"
"I planned it all out at school today and then on the bus. We can take the three rowboats, Mum, and out of Gram's sheets, you know how she still has white ones, make and decorate sails, and I've already invited some kids. So can we, can we, Mum?"
How could I ever say no? And so from that brief spark came the most enjoyable, historical day. Zach invited nine friends, six boys and three girls for Columbus Day morning. Zach was all prepared to be Christopher until I said, "Zach you can't invite people to be part of a play and then automatically take the lead part. It needs to be fair." In the end we decided that in a big bowl would be slips of paper with parts such as "Crew Member of the Pinta" or "Sailor on the Santa Maria". Of course the coveted part would say "Christopher Columbus".
After the children arrived and "picked from the bowl" they were given the sheets to decorate. Most of them came in 17th century garb but we had plenty of costumes on hand for those that didn't. Then down to the "ships" they went to figure out how they were going to hoist these sails they made. That took some time...actually a lot of time. Both Papa and our friend Ed Fuller wanted to help but I gave them the "evil eye"....it was up to the kids to come up with a mast that would work. In my day, I have seen too many parents become too overly involved with "doing" for their kid rather then being patient and letting the child figure things out for themselves. Maybe it's a naturel inclination...but in the end it defeats the purpose. How many times have I seen third grade projects look like they could have been done by a high schooler!!?
In the end, the three boats set sail. Papa, Ed and myself traveled by canoe to keep an eye on all of them because as Zach said, "Mom, they didn't have life vests in Columbus's time."
They "sailed" across the pond to my sister's dock...where my sister Anne dressed as an Arawak Native American gave them a map soiled by tea that Zach had made the day before to "treasures" of the new world. Following the map, over hill and dale, through cranberry bogs and forests, they discovered "ears of corn", "potatoes and squash", a "bag of cranberries" and finally a treasure chest full of penny candy.
And so the question is.....How will you celebrate Columbus Day?
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Comments: 51
loved the pictures you included.
Good job.
Your photos are delightful to see,however,and you did a good job entertaining the kids
cheers,gayle *btw, appreciate all of the feedback on my content!
For the past few years in kindergarden we have called this day, "A Day of Discovery" and go out in to the woods on a hike....but according to the Massachusetts Standards we still have to teach "important holidays, such as Columbus Day, Fourth of July, etc!!!
It is sad that the textbooks still used "twist the truth" and/or present flat out lies...
i have learned more about true American history since i have been out of college by reading a variety of writings from a variety of cultural perspectives...
my first 8 yrs. of education at a parochial school where,with the exception of one woman,involved being taught by Irish nuns who presented history with a heavy dose of Irish culture...
had to play catch-up once i told, not asked, my parents to send me to public high-school...so of course i continued to be taught many fallacies which i didn't question until later on....i continue to learn "the truth" by remaining open to those who write,and discuss it....
Wonder if anyone has ever challenged the Mass. standards?......
regards,gayle
Columbus Day I thought was my birthday, October 12. Then I heard it was the 11th. And although my birthday falls on this holiday each year, or around it at least...this year I have to say I have no clear plans...for Columbus Day OR my birthday!
Though I am not in America so this event does not mean much to me..still, I admire what you do-- teaching kids that..the free spirit is in the hands on..not in the pages.
Help my wife become a published author -
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A Scandalous Overture
I'm really an informal type of person and most holidays come and go without my notice.
I do believe the Irish were the first to discover America. They came over with lots of Guinness and then abruptly left when it ran out. Magi might know more about this.
In Oz we celebrate Australia Day on January 26th to mark the day of first settlement...totally ignoring the fact that the Aboriginal people had already lived here for over 40,000 years. Of course, they have nothing to celebrate except 'invasion day.'
I lived in Canada for nearly 10 Columbus Days. Since coming back, I have not celebrated the historicity of Columbus Day, but my first dozen years or so in Massachusetts, I went to many of the historical towns and museums. I always tell myself, I will get up early one Patriot's Day and hie myself to Lexington. But that has not happened, yet. Could happen, though.
Plimoth Plantation was fantastic - I'm related to Cooke's wife.
I don't celebrate Columbus Day at all, in part because I have similar misgivings to yours...
History as Propaganda: Is history always written by the victors?
In his "Society must be Defended", Michel Foucault posited that the victors of a social struggle use their political dominance to suppress a defeated adversary's version of historical events in favor of their own propaganda, which may go so far as historical revisionism (see Michel Foucault's analysis of historical and political discourse above). Nations adopting such an approach would likely fashion a "universal" theory of history to support their aims, with a teleological and deterministic philosophy of history used to justify the inevitableness and rightness of their victories (see The Enlightenment's ideal of progress above). Philosopher Paul Ricoeur has written of the use of this approach by totalitarian and Nazi regimes, with such regimes "exercis[ing] a virtual violence upon the diverging tendencies of history" (History and Truth 183), and with fanaticism the result. For Ricoeur, rather than a unified, teleological philosophy of history, "We carry on several histories simultaneously, in times whose periods, crises, and pauses do not coincide. We enchain, abandon, and resume several histories, much as a chess player who plays several games at once, renewing now this one, now the another" (History and Truth 186). For Ricoeur, Marx's unified view of history may be suspect, but is nevertheless seen as:
the philosophy of history par excellence: not only does it provide a formula for the dialectics of social forces—under the name of historical materialism—but it also sees in the proletarian class the reality which is at once universal and concrete and which, although it be oppressed today, will constitute the unity of history in the future. From this standpoint, the proletarian perspectivce furnishes both a theoretical meaning of history and a practial goal for history, a principle of explication and a line of action. (History and Truth 183)
Walter Benjamin believed that Marxist historians must take a radically different view point from the bourgeois and idealist points of view, in an attempt to create a sort of history from below, which would be able to conceive an alternative conception of history, not based, as in classical historical studies, on the philosophical and juridical discourse of sovereignty--an approach that would invariably adhere to major states (the victors') points of view.
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is a fictional account of the manipulation of the historical record for nationalist aims and manipulation of power. In the book, he wrote, "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." The creation of a "national story" by way of management of the historical record is at the heart of the debate about history as propaganda. To some degree, all nations are active in the promotion of such "national stories," with ethnicity, nationalism, gender, power, heroic figures, class considerations and important national events and trends all clashing and competing within the narrative.
Thinking about this in relationship to the study of Columbus Day...I imagine all along in textbooks across this nation, Columbus has been tooted as a hero. But, I imagine today, any teacher with ethics would use this holiday to question our role (the white European/ American) perspective of wiping out a civilization that was here long before us. It wopuld be an excellent opportunity to discuss this subject from the different parties participating.
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Happy Birthday girl!
Although two of my children, the first and the last, were traditional learners...Aaron, my middle child was not. In order to teach him and make learning fun, Papa and I designed this "hands-on" approach and he thrived. Each spring I would look at the curricula for the next year and that summer we would explore the major concepts (throwing tea bags into Boston harbour, crossing the Delaware River as did Washington, mock battles at Little Bighorn (not one of my boys wanted to be Custer!).
In my classroom today I have a collage of Aaron photos......a good reminder to me that not all children learn in the traditional way....and that I need to explore many different ways to teach a concept!
I agree with you and others about Columbus. When I was 9 I argued with my teacher about the issue and she told me that we had to go with what the history books tell us at school. I wasn't too pleased with her. Today I will not be celebrating. I am upset because the banks are closed for something not so very important.
Loved your article. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you for posting your article to !!!Today's Top Three Photos and Articles!!!@
http://bestoftoday.gather.com/
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Angels on your pillow and those you love.
Wait till you see the math article I'm working on....though it won't come out for a few more days...need a few more pictures of the kids!
Funny...in 2001 we brought Zach to Ireland for three weeks following his high school graduation and we tramped around Dublin following James Joyce's footsteps....then over to Sligo to follow Yeats. As you can see, Zach has a literature bent!