Discovering Columbus: Re-reading the Past

Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 6 pages.
How to engage students in a critical analysis of the textbook version of “discovery.”

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Most of my students have trouble with the idea that a book — especially a textbook —can lie. That’s why I start my U.S. history class by stealing a student’s purse.

As the year opens, my students may not know when the Civil War was fought or what James Madison or Frederick Douglass did; but they know that a brave fellow named Christopher Columbus discovered America. Indeed, this bit of historical lore may be the only knowledge class members share in common.

What students don’t know is that their textbooks have, by omission or otherwise, lied to them.

Originally published in Rethinking Columbus, a publication of Rethinking Schools.

Key words: Christopher Columbus, Taino, Arawaks, Indians, textbook comparison, encounter, conquest, discovery