Leggo my Columbus...

I think most people know that we live in an era of Christopher Columbus bashing. There are certain historians and politicians who for years have been bullying history text book authors to “tell the truth” about Columbus. In other words, Columbus should no longer be celebrated for his discovery of America but rather he should be condemned for his plundering and butchering of the Indians.

Fortunately, these Columbus bashers have failed in their attempts to rewrite history. The textbook publishers are no idiots; they write books to make money, and, thankfully, the school boards in charge of adopting the textbooks prefer that Columbus be shown as a positive figure in our history. After all, we have enough cynics in this country; do we really want to mass produce them from the high schools?

Now, I don’t care what they teach at the university level. The students are old enough to investigate the “truth” for themselves anyway. There are enough existing primary sources to get a pretty good idea of what Columbus was doing here. I just don’t like the idea of school children growing up thinking that our country was discovered by a bunch of murdering, gold hungry scoundrels.

Another component to the Columbus bashing includes the ever-popular denial of Columbus’s discovery of America. Yes, yes, we all know he initially made landfall in the West Indies. Big deal. Get over it. So I was thrilled when my Psychology of Education professor told one of my Columbus bashing history buddies that he had “obviously fallen victim to contemporary politics” after making such a claim.

My friend’s jaw dropped to the floor. He was so used to professors giving him that “yes, my clever little puppet” smile whenever an attack on Columbus was made. I, on the other hand, giggled and squirmed, and resisted the urge to bow down before my professor and kiss his genuine leather boots.