Monday the 13th is the day that many calendars mark Columbus Day. The cooperating teacher for my practicum group expressed that she will be talking about Columbus Day with her students. Students are creating binoculars and will be doing activities related to explorers.
Last Monday, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day in an effort to shed light on the bloody history of the past and draw attention to the continuing social issues Indigenous people continue to face today. There is an article on this issue here:
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024715781_indigenousdayxml.html
What other people’s thoughts are on observing Columbus Day in the classroom? Should it happen? How should it be addressed?
It was odd having Columbus Day in the classroom after having Naomi’s class. Our teacher read a book about Columbus and talked about his journey rather than getting into the specifics of relations between explorers and the first nation people. She also did a good job in saying that he is celebrated for discovering the new world, but it was not a new world, in fact there were already people living there.
This also makes me think about Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. in the classroom because today in class our teacher showed us some props for her holiday lessons. She does a unit of “Christmas” around the world. We didn’t get to talk a whole lot about it, but she did say that some students choose to opt out.