"In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...." I'm sure we've all learned this poem about Columbus, I know I have. When I was in elementary school I was taught that Columbus was brave explorer who sailed the world looking for new land, and when he found it in America, helped the Native Americans, and treated them with kindness and respect. This poem even says that. It says he rejoiced at the sight of the Native Americans. According to the article "We Have No Reason To Celebrate An Invasion", that wasn't the case. The article states that Columbus' invasion of American caused the Native Americans much demise, and still destroys they're people today. The Native Americans agree that Columbus did give them some useful things, such as horses, which they use to high military art, and beads, which they used to a high art as well. Despite those things, the Native Americans claim that Columbus is the reason they are the poorest people in America, have the highest teen suicide rate, and are ill-housed and in poor health. Obviously, this stuff isn't taught in schools. When I looked up lesson plans online I couldn't find any that taught these types of things. A few briefly states that the Europeans and Native Americans had opposing views some times. For the most part, they all told the same story, the one I remember learning in elementary school. I would teach Columbus Day in a way that showed both sides of this. I would obviously use age appropriate books and activities.
When I was taught about Thanksgiving in elementary school we did many things. We made turkeys with outlines of our hands, made pilgrim hats out of construction paper, and put on plays about the first Thanksgiving; which showed pilgrims and Native Americans sitting at long tables, happily passing side dishes around, laughing and smiling together. A lot of the lessons plans I found online showed many similar activities. However, the article "Rethinking Thanksgiving" showed some new and interesting ways to teach about Thanksgiving. One idea that could be used to show the different sides and opinions of the pilgrims and Native Americans would be to read stories that explain how Native Americans may be offended by the celebrations and Thanksgiving. Some other ideas for new ways to teach Thanksgiving would be to have students research harvest festivals from different countries, and compare them, read stories, poems, ect. from Native American authors, and having students look for stereotypes of Native Americans in advertisements and bulletin boards. As a teacher, I would try to incorporate some of these ideas into teaching about Thanksgiving.
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