Seeds of Change Action Item: Abolish Columbus Day
Today’s class focused on the life and crimes of Christopher Columbus. We wanted to make sure to talk about him ahead of October 12, which is still designated as a federal holiday in his honor. Our Mint and Bloom class will spend the 12th celebrating Indigenous People’s Day instead, but we thought it was also important to discuss with the kids why Columbus shouldn’t be honored with a holiday.
In preparation for today’s class, we watched a ton of YouTube videos about Columbus. They largely fell into two categories- accurate ones that were long and boring, or hopelessly, terribly inaccurate ones that mostly just repeated the “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” line to the tune of a random children’s song. Of the very few that were both accurate an interesting, most contained one part or another that we deemed too graphic for our young elementary learners. Columbus did a lot of really truly horrific things (read this infographic from The Oatmeal for a quick recap) and we didn’t want to sugarcoat it, but some of this stuff would truly be too much for some of our kids. History vs. Christopher Columbus was the best video we found. That link will take you to the unedited version of the video, which mentions how “Columbus sold girls as young as nine into sexual slavery” (this line starts around the 3:50 mark). For our class, we did a shoddy editing job and took out the line about child rape and enslavement. We do think it’s important that adults know the full story of Columbus, but wanted to leave it up to parents and guardians to decide if and when you talk to your kids about it. So here’s the edited version of the video, with that line removed:
I’m also going to throw in the link to this Adam Ruins Everything video about Christopher Columbus. It was too mature/graphic for our class today but if your kids are older or less sensitive it’s a parody of the Magic School Bus and it’s pretty funny.
Our action item for this week is to help abolish Columbus Day. You can start by reading this excellent article by the Zinn Education Project. Here’s the introduction:
“It is time to stop celebrating the crimes of Columbus and stand in solidarity with the Indigenous people who demand an end to Columbus Day. Instead of glorifying a person who enslaved and murdered people, destroyed cultures, and terrorized those who challenged his rule, we seek to honor these communities demanding sovereignty, recognition, and rights. We encourage schools to petition their administration and for communities to introduce legislation to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. This packet from the Zinn Education Project provides information and resources to join the campaign to Abolish Columbus Day, and is a companion to the teaching guide Rethinking Columbus, which offers lessons, articles, poetry, and more for grades K–12.”
Austin is one of about 40 cities that have cancelled Columbus Day, and a number of states have cancelled it too. But plenty of schools, cities, and states still honor Columbus with an official holiday, and of course it is still a federal holiday too. The ZEP article linked above has sample resolutions for schools, universities, cities, and states who want to get with the times and cancel Columbus Day and celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead. Check out where your town stands on the subject of Columbus Day. It is still a holiday in Kyle, where Helen Puffybear lives. If your school or town still celebrates this guy, consider sending them a letter or email that includes the resolution in the ZEP article and ask them to consider adopting it.
“Columbus Day” is still printed on lots of calendars too. If you have a calendar in your house, check if it has “Columbus Day” printed on October 12th. If it does, consider writing to the people who made that calendar and asking them to remove it from future printings.
Another idea is to help educate your community about the real Columbus. While textbooks have gotten better in the last thirty years, there are still lots of myths and legends about Columbus and many of his crimes against humanity are not taught. We thought it could be cool to make little signs with short facts about Columbus and stick them in the ground along a sidewalk, maybe in your yard if you have a sidewalk that gets foot traffic, or along a sidewalk near where you live. I made a template with lots of ideas for signs, and you could print them out as is and tape them to wooden skewers, or popsicle sticks, or regular sticks and put them in the ground. Kids could also help decorate the signs, or draw pictures on the reverse side.
So to recap, our action items are:
Read the ZEP packet about Abolishing Columbus Day.
Research if the school you attend or live near celebrates Columbus Day. What about your town? Your state? The university near you? Send them letters with the sample resolutions to abolish Columbus Day from the packet linked above.
Check if Columbus Day is written on your calendar, if you have one at home. If it is, write to the company that made the calendar and ask them to remove it from future calendars.
Make little yard or sidewalk signs to help people learn the real history of Columbus.
We’re doing all of this stuff this week so we can celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day next week. As the Zinn Education Project puts it, this is a day “to commemorate the resistance and resilience of Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, and not just in a long-ago past, but today.” We’ll see you then!
