With Columbus Day coming up, we were asked to read Morning Girl by Michael Dorris for my Social Studies class. This was a wonderful book about a young girl and her family.
When I began reading it, I could not put it down. It got me thinking about the native people in the story and how their lives would change when the island was "discovered." When lands were discovered in Christopher Columbus' time, often the natives were referred to as "savages" or "uncivilized" and they were forced into Christianity.
Source: Scholastic Books
As a country we celebrate Columbus Day, but what does it really mean? Government offices are not open and there is no post, but what is the bigger picture? In school, children color pictures of the ships that sailed with Christopher Columbus and they make things to honor him, but was he a good person and did he do good things? Students are often not taught anything about Columbus past the idea that he discovered America and the younger children have no idea what consequences that discovery had. So the question remains in my brain...should Columbus Day be celebrated in schools when students only are exposed to a snippet of information?
Until Next Time,
Ms. K
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