Why Is Christopher Columbus Considered A Hero

Once Upon a Genocide

Christopher Columbus is often portrayed as a hero in America. He found a new land, proved the world was not flat, and made way for the pilgrims to escape tyranny. American children are shown a hero and taught many fallacies about this man from the beginning of their education. According to our text, Columbus is seen in children’s literature as little less than a saint. “When Christopher Columbus was a child, he always wanted to be like Saint Christopher. He wanted to sail to faraway places and spread the word of Christianity.” (Osborne, Bigelow, 79) The problem with this is that children’s literature often leaves out the treatment of the Native Americans. Our lands were already being occupied when Columbus and his peers
arrived. We teach our children that the Natives were hostile and had to be controlled by the civilized Europeans. What we leave out is that these civilized Europeans enslaved and murdered the Natives without consideration of their own humanity. The Natives were forced to supply the Europeans with gold and when they did not meet their quota they would “cut people’s hands off,” (Bigelow 84) instead children’s literature uses the term “punished” (Fritz, Bigelow, 84) which can easily be compared to timeout or a spanking in a child’s mind. In my time as a middle school teacher, students were learning through their social studies classes that many of the myths they had learned in elementary school were lies. We had discussions about some of these myths. I remember one of my students pointing out that we should not have Columbus Day off. He said that they had learned so many terrible things about him in American History the day before. Our team’s history teacher had taken it upon himself to dispel these myths about some great men in history, including Columbus. These students were given articles telling about the suffering of the Natives and asked questions. I am very thankful to this teacher for adding to the curriculum something that caused our students to think critically about the history they learn as children. This teacher wanted them to not blindly accept the hero worship that they had been handed throughout their education.

Fiction Posing As Truth

I Fiction Posing As Truth, the authors critic the book My Heart Is On the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, A Sioux Girl.
The authors point out the many misconceptions and outright lies being offered in children’s literature. In this story written by Ann Rinaldi we follow the experiences of a young girl who is staying in the Carlisle Indian School Grounds. This girls name and experiences are made up and do not fit with the written accounts of real Native Americans who were held there. In the children’s literature book, the characters are brought to the school and treated reasonably well. There is no indication that they were “kidnapped” (Reese et All, 114) and being assimilated. This boarding school was founded under the premise of “kill the Indian save the man.” (Pratt, Reese et all, 114) The goal of the school was to take in Indian children by force and turn out civilized young adults that were European in their behaviors. This was not achieved and actually led to several hundred deaths and runaways. When narrating on the culture and belief systems of the Native peoples many fallacies and creative licenses were taken that caused it to be a “trivialization of the belief systems of a people.” (Reese et all,
114) When teaching young children about history, teachers often look for resources to help the time period come alive. I can see many teachers looking at this book as an easy and reliable way to show life as a Native American during this time. If teachers are unaware of the truth in these situations and take the children’s literature at its word, then we are encouraging the spreading of false information. Teachers need to be aware that every book labeled as historical fiction is not trustworthy. When these books are published under the assumption of relating history, there should be some kind of review in place.

Save the Muslim Girl In Save the Muslim Girl, the authors challenge us to think of the Muslim girls portrayed in children’s literature differently.
They describe three stereotypes that we have about Muslim girls. The first is that they are veiled, nameless, and silent. We are shown pictures of covered and frightened girls desperate for Western help, but is this reality for the millions of girls and women in the Middle East? The authors suggest that Westerners have created their own stereotype about Muslim girls that does not maintain truth and “suggests that we in the west need to help unveil and ‘give’ them a voice.” (Sensoy and Marshall, 122)
Secondly, we also been conditioned to believe that a veiled woman is an oppressed woman. In truth women choose to wear or not wear their veils out of religious piety and social preference. These veils can also be used as a “tool of resistance” (Sensoy and Marshall, 124) “Women of Afghanistan documented the Taliban’s crimes against girls and women by hiding video cameras under their burqas and transformed the burqa from simply a marker of oppression to a tool of
resistance.”
The third stereotype in these books is that the Western woman must save the Muslim girls. The authors glaze over any women in the Middle East that fight for equality and understanding in their own culture. They leave out the fact that organizations like RAWA, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, have been working for generations to stamp out oppression. They also leave out that western involvement in the region caused and inflamed the issues that young women are experiencing today.
This subject is an increasingly troubled one. While we want to learn and read more about Muslim women and girls, the stories being published are in accordance with the stereotypes. The only exception to this rule that I have found is the story of Malala, a girl who was shot on her way to school and survived to forgive her attackers and become a voice for educating women. This girl has shown that the Muslim girl does not need saving. She will save herself and encourage others around the world while she is doing it.

Race: Some Teachable- and Uncomfortable- Moments

In Race: Some Teachable- and Uncomfortable- Moments Heidi Tolentino shares an uncomfortable but valuable lesson taught in her 11th grade class. The class was reading The Life of Bees and going over the struggle to get African Americans the right to vote. A young European American girl said that she wanted to finish the voters registration test to “know what it was like” for potential African American voters. This caused another student to have an outburst that was filled with emotion and past suffering. “You can never know what it’s like. You will never understand.”(Tolentino, 155) Ms. Tolentino encouraged a discussion between the two that was both honest and painful. It also brought up the question of “sympathy vs empathy- that it is not possible for us to feel what people in other times and circumstances felt, but that it is crucial that we attempt to understand.” (Tolentino, 116) Both students were being honest and trying their best to understand each other. Ms. Tolentino looks back and reflects on how she could have changed the events of that day, but that the discussion was vital. I think several kind hearted people in this world are misguided in thinking that they can understand the suffering of others. When my aunt died of cancer, my dad told me that he wished he could understand what she was going through. He knew that he could never truly understand what she was going through and that made it harder for him to watch. In the same way some European Americans think that if they can understand what their African American friends have gone through, then things will be better. But just as the African American girl in the text asked, “What will it change?” (Tolentino 156) In truth, we may never truly understand, but it might change the way we treat each other. Seeking to understand each other’s experience will not change the world instantly, but it can help in the future. It can change the patterns of racist and stereotyped actions. If we can try to understand, then maybe we can start to make a brighter future.

Beyond Pink and Blue In Beyond Pink and Blue, Robin Cooley shows how her students rose to the challenge of changing stereotypes. From the beginning of the year, Ms. Cooley exposed her students to multiple views of families, gender roles, and acceptance. She shared books about girls and boys breaking out of biased rolls, families with nontraditional structures, the gay community, and people making changes. As a class they paired up with a first grade class to write a book called “What Everyone Needs to Know” in order to clear up misconception about families and individuals.
These students also used what they know about stereotypes and real life to challenge the advertising style of Pottery Barn Kids. They looked over the catalog and picked out images that brought out stereotypes. They realized that girls are often seen playing with dolls and reading and that boys are focused on sports and dinosaurs. Almost all of the images put a girl in a pink room and a boy in a blue room. The students very eloquently wrote to the editors about their concerns. The letters were polite and specific. They always thanked the reader for their time. These letters were answered by the president of Pottery Barn Kids. She thanked them for their letters and feedback and promised to look into the suggestions.
In part of the class’s stereotype busting curriculum, they read a book called King and King. This story was about a prince who could not find a princes he connected with until he meet a prince and feel in love. The students “appreciated hearing picture book that has gay characters because they know gay people exist.” (Cooley, 250) Coming from a rural southern background it is nice to know that children want to hear about people who are different than themselves. I worry about how my students, and their parents, would react to this story. I think it is great that the teacher did not shy away from this topic.