While folks are up in arms at the thought of a gay character in the background of a children's book, they are often blind to bad history they embrace as gospel truth. It's a bit early for school to start, but homeschoolers are already starting to ramp up book borrowing anyway. This biography of Christopher Columbus crossed my desk, and reminded me how bad most elementary-grade history can be. Kids need heroes, but it does them a disservice to give them propaganda, and this may be what is triggering such a backlash from those who have learned the unsavory reality swept under the rug by most writers.
Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire's biographical picture books epitomize this kind of hagiographic propaganda masquerading as history, but most textbooks indulge in this lazy style to an extent, too. Is it any surprise people want to destroy statues and rename holidays when they learn the truth behind this perfectly normal flawed, selfish man corrupted by power? The Our Fake History podcast has a three part series which explores the more unsavory aspects of Columbus and his voyages without going overboard on condemnation.
In short, he was wrong about the size of the world, abused the natives he met in the Caribbean, violated his explicit orders to not take slaves, imposed draconian taxes and punishments in his pursuit of gold, and was generally an exemplar of why power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That doesn't make a good story for the kids though, does it? And we need to focus on instilling name recognition, not troubling them with the dark nuances of humanity's inhumanity to man. The civil religion must venerate its saints and vilify its villains one way or another!
What has been your experience learning more about real history as you grew beyond those cursory overviews from primary school? Have you felt like lashing out against symbols of virtue who you discovered had failed? Did you feel let down by the lack of greatness in great men? Did the nuance lead to a deeper understanding of how the world really works, and help you grow instead? What would you have done differently if you could guide the education of others today without the standards and mandates of government regulation and expectation we have around the world now? If you are homeschooling, what are you doing to help build a better foundation for the next generation?
