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[EsotericManiac]

I've never seen anyone make him out to be a saint

 

[AbsolutBro]

Our capital is literally named after him (District of Columbia).

Technically speaking, no. Our capital is named for Columbia, the personifcation of the US, who in turn is named for Columbus. It is important to note though, that Columbia was used to refer to the colonies well before they became the United States.

And that is your usefuless fact of the day.

 

[The Hermit]

The US has a "Christopher Columbus Day"? What the hell? How is that even possible?

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Hero worship or monster condemnation both basically operate under the great man theory which was more or less thrown out by historians quite some time ago. It's just a lot harder to teach the more social sciencey type of history to children. Since most people don't interact with history at any other time in their life they think that's what it revolves around.

The author argues that history is widely viewed as a "boring" subject by teenagers and young adults precisely because we leave out all of these interesting tidbits in an effort to dumb it down for kids.

 

[Red Mage]

The US has a "Christopher Columbus Day"? What the hell? How is that even possible?

Yeah, but no one actually cares about it. It's just an excuse for State and Federal employees (?and banks?) to take off.

 

[Cocaloch]

The author argues that history is widely viewed as a "boring" subject by teenagers and young adults precisely because we leave out all of these interesting tidbits in an effort to dumb it down for kids.

The "interesting tidbits" boil down to factoids though. Even undergraduate level students have a hard time dealing with history past a survey level. Teaching history to kids is a pretty complicated issue, but I certainly grant you the way it's being done now is wrong.

 

[casabolg]

Reading the op again, its like a list off of horrid almost comicy villainlly.

I think Cromwell and the Puritans hit the mark on the most comic of villainy. The cancellation of Christmas.

 

[ZoddGutts]

This isn't exactly a secret.

Yeah, we learned about this in U.S. History during High School.

 

[vas_a_morir]

I actually had a very different experience. In my elementary school, in a suburb of Kansas City, I was never taught that Christopher Columbus was anything other than a hero. We learned that many English and Spanish colonists treated the Native Americans badly, but that was it. We learned that slavery was awful, but we weren't taught the specifics. Until middle school, I thought that Christopher Columbus was entirely well-intentioned, and never meant to cause so much violence.

After I moved to South Florida, I was given a very different, much more explicit lesson on slavery and Columbus. But the modern difficulties of Black people were usually just mentioned in a hushed tone, or during some kind of open discussion.

Hmm... each student in my school had to write an essay on the ways MLK and the Civil Rights Movement changed America, and the winners read the speeches on MLK Jr. Day when a BLVD that was renamed after him, in a black church no less.

OH, and when I was in 2nd grade, in our class, we were told all the presidents and sang them in a song. On that day, I remember our teacher bringing a picture of MLK Jr, and talking to us about how he was a great man who won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping end segregation. I remember clearly our teacher (named Mrs. Rice) saying 'he is as important as any president we've had, and should be talked about.' In 3rd grade, we had to read a book about a young black boy living in pre-abolition South.

This was in Kentucky in the mid-90's. I think there was a strong push in the state to get to kids early to teach them why racism was wrong. A lot of pro-environmental stuff, too. Missouri, while a fellow Union border state, might not have seen this as a problem worth addressing so directly. So, I know that my anecdotes are not indicative of the reality for all American students.

 

[zero shift]

Its celebrated in other American countries as The Day of the Race. The only country i know of off the top of my head that doesnt any more is Venezuela where its celebrated as The Day of Resistance (happened when Hugo Chavez came to power).

"Race" and "Resistance" to what?

 

[gutter_trash]

he failed his primary mission and wasn't a good navigator, he got his geography wrong and took wild guesses

then you got people saying that's what it takes to be an adventurer.. hmm okay but his primary mission was not to be ''adventurous''. His primary mission was to find a route to India via the West, (hence why Native Americans were called Indians and stuff like that)

He was tried for atrocities by the Spanish courts for crying out loud.

 

[Kusagari]

Columbus character or actual exploits were never brought up in school for me.

It was just mentioned he (accidentally) discovered America and that's it.

 

[IceCold]

"Race" and "Resistance" to what?

I think it's a day to celebrate Hispanic people and culture in general.