Columbus Day

Most of you are probably aware of the year 1492. The year Columbus sailed the ocean blue on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. The voyage when Columbus "discovered" America.

You may not have heard the story from the Native American point of view. This morning I read "Encounter" by, Jane Yolen to the class - a piece of historical fiction that tells the Columbus story from the voice of a young Taino (Native American) boy. From that point of view, Columbus came to the Americas and "discovered" a land that had been inhabited for thousands of years. He claimed that inhabited land for Spain.

Before we started, Mrs. Butchart and I did a role play. She was sitting beside the group searching through MY pocketbook. The conversation went something like this:

Mrs. S: What are you doing with my pocketbook?
Mrs. B: This isn't your pocketbook. I discovered it just a little while ago.
Mrs. S: Discovered it? You couldn't discover that! It belonged to me. I had it first.
Mrs. B: But I found it and I want to keep it...

As Mrs. Butchart and I "argued," you could hear the light bulbs going off in the kids' heads. They said, "You can't discover something that already belonged to someone else!" This in fact is true. Columbus did not truly "discover" America. From another point of view however, Columbus did introduce the New World to Europeans. Certainly a kind of discovery.

Talk to your child about Columbus. Talk about the story that you learned originally and how your thoughts have changed. Talk about how stories change depending upon the point of view.

Happy Talking!