What do your kids learn about Columbus and Thanksgiving?

[Greaseball]

When I was in elementary school I learned that Columbus discovered America and that the Pilgrims and the Indians were best friends and they got together and had a nice Thanksgiving.

Is that what kids learn today?

In high school I learned that Columbus didn't really discover America, but it wasn't until college that I learned exactly what went on...(there is a thread about it in Activism)...

[daylily]

Greaseball, I will check with my kids and get back to you, but I just had to post and ask you the meaning of your signature!

[Greaseball]

Heh heh!

It's one of a long list of rules for female teachers written in 1915. Other rules are don't get married, don't dye your hair, stuff like that.

I never knew, however, that ice cream stores were once dens of iniquity.

[daylily]

That's funny, Greaseball!

My first grader, apparently, has forgotten everything she learned about Columbus this year.

My fifth grader told me that he was taught this year that the tribe of "Indians" that Columbus first met were completely wiped out within 10 years. It sounds like his teacher put heavy emphasis on the slaughter of native Americans.

[LunaMoom]

My dd is in 3rd grade and they didn't learn much about Columbus at all,thank goodness. They did a whole unit on Native American cultures that was informative but sort of glossed over the whole genocide end of things.It's one of those areas we supplement at home through discussions and reading,so she is aware of the real deal on these sorts of things.The key to public education is staying on top of what they're telling your kids,I think.That way you can help them find other points of view and teach them to learn more.

[Moon]

I don't know where I read this, but it was somewhere on the Net....

"Thanksgiving, or, as it is known in my family, Kill-All-The-Indians-with-Smallpox Day."

Maeve repeated this to my mother once and my mother nearly died.

[dlb]

ot-- Greaseball, my husband is an icecream salesman, does that maybe make him a bad boy?

My third son (8) calls Columbus "that dude who really didn't really discover America." Must have learned that at school, I never brought it up.


dlb

[~member~]

My dd is Anishinaabe (Native American), and was taught that she is not a REAL indian because she does not live in a teepee and does not wear feathers in her hair. :

[guestmama9924]

Well, my girl is in an alternative school where we the parents are expected to help with lessons.

So I marched in with my People's History book and told the nice little kids about how Columbus loved native women and babies and slavery and robbery......

Anyway, I think that the 'nice little explorer" stuff is still really prevalent, but more and more schools are open to some other views and education.