Tuesday, October 14, 2013 Rethinking Columbus Examining historical perspectives through a critical lens and challenging bias and power.

I “discovered” Mr. Ambrose’s classroom…that means it’s mine now, right?

Writing Warm Up : “The word ‘discovery’ is loaded…[it] carries a perspective, a bias…the point of view of the supposed discoverers… And when the word gets repeated in textbooks, those textbooks become… ‘the propaganda of the winners.’” -Bill Bigelow [quoting Howard Zinn] Rethinking Columbus What is problematic about the word “discovery”? How do you feel about the way Columbus’s story is taught in schools? Do you agree with Bigelow?

Columbus Day Poem Dr. Carrie Freie reads "Columbus Day," a poem by Jimmie Durham, published in the book "Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7sn25-aWYU

Guiding Questions Get into the habit of interrogating a text. Start by asking: Whose story is this? What voices are missing or purposely ignored in this account? Are certain groups marginalized within the text? How does the author choose to write about these groups? What are the author’s goals or motivations?

Go ahead, be a skeptic. "All written material should be read skeptically. I want students to explore the politics of print—that perspectives on history and social reality underlie the written word…to read is both to comprehend what is written, but also to question why it is written” – Bill Bigelow Rethinking Columbus

Why was I lied to? Can you think of any groups in our society who might have an interest in people having an inaccurate view of history? Is the continual distortion of Columbus simply an accident, or are there social groups that benefit from children developing a false or limited understanding of the past?