Columbus Day
Are students today getting the entire story, in all its bloody treachery and cruelty, so that they can evaluate history and make up their own minds? If the Columbus myth taught in schools has been replaced by all the facts, then future generations will have a better chance of understanding our history and each other.
Should we celebrate Columbus Day?
Today, Ms. Pecoraro spoke with us and gave her perspective on Columbus? She strongly believes we should celebrate Columbus Day. Why do you think Ms. Pecoraro has this perspective? Can you understand her point of view? Did she change your mind about Columbus?
October 13th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Should we celebrate Columbus Day?
The reason we celebrate Columbus Day is because he is a hero. The truth is, he isn’t a hero. He isn’t a hero because of what he did to the Native people. He took them over. He took them over even though the Native people were being nice to him. They were helping Columbus! Also, he made them follow him and do what he said or else they would be pushed out of their homes. I wouldn’t think a hero would take other people’s homes because heroes are supposed to help other people, not make them homeless.
Another reason is he did not discover America. He thought it was Asia and other people were already on it. He claims to have discovered it. But the Native peoples actually discovered it. He lied. How is a hero a hero if he is less honest?
One reason that he is kind of a hero is he spread the word on Christianity. But, there is still some bad parts about him spreading it. He used force. He did not give them an option of changing, he forced them to change. They had to change or they would get kicked out of their homes. That’s really mean. Why would anyone kick someone else out of their homes? Who?
My answer on “Should we celebrate Columbus day,” my answer is no. He was a total jerk.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I do not think we should celebrate Columbus Day because he is not really a hero. When we celebrate Columbus Day, it’s just like worshiping a person who murdered and wiped out an entire tribe! An entire tribe! Can you believe it! I mean that is very bad.
Christopher Columbus did not really discover America because before he got there, the Native Americans were already there.
Now that you learned a little bit more, do you really think Columbus is a hero?
October 13th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Why is there a Columbus Day? There’s a Columbus Day because we thought Columbus was a great hero.
But was he really? No, he wasn’t. He made slaves out of nice people. The Taino thought he was nice, but he wasn’t. He only wanted their riches and land. The Taino didn’t know who Columbus really was until they became slaves. Columbus gave the Taino weak gifts. The Taino gave useful gifts. Columbus did mean things to the Taino. He cut off their noses and ears. He also took their women! Columbus was the first European to discover America, but he wasn’t the first person to discover America. The Native Americans were already there. In the book we read in class today, ENCOUNTER, it said that Columbus wasn’t looking at the people but he was looking at their gold nose rings and arm bands.
Columbus was a bad guy. We shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I don’t think we should celebrate Columbus Day because if schools stopped telling lies, no one would celebrate Columbus Day. Well, one of the things that ticks me off about Columbus is that he wanted to find gold but he couldn’t, so instead of gold he brought home to Spain slaves and that started the slave trade. Another thing that gets me mad is that he killed so many innocent people for gold, he is basically the king or founder of genocide (the killing of a race) in the Americas. That is not a good thing.
But the main reason why I hate Columbus is because they say he discovered America when people (the Native Americans) were already living there. I mean come on, that is so dumb. How can you say Columbus discovered America when people were already there. I mean, come on, he even had proof that people were there when he brought home the slaves. That is the real reason I think Columbus Day is bogus/ bad.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I don’t even think that we should celebrate Columbus Day because it’s about someone who discovered America, when in reality when you discover something, that means that no one has found it yet! But, the Native Americans found it first which is exactly why we call them the NATIVE Americans!
Did you know that some people actually took action and call it Native Peoples Day! Let me give you some reasons that Columbus wasn’t what you think he was.
1: He was a murderer because he killed so many Indians in slavery.
2: He didn’t come to discover America, he actually came for the riches and the gold.
3: On one of his trips, he couldn’t find any gold so instead he came back with over 500 slaves!!!
October 13th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I don’t think that we should celebrate Columbus Day because he didn’t discover America, the Native Americans did. We call the natives Indians, but that is not correct. It is really just a mistake Columbus made when they landed in America. Columbus and his crew thought they had landed in India!!!!
In some places, people don’t have Columbus Day but they call it Indigenous People’s Day. I think that if we were all celebrating the indigenous people, that would be a great holiday!
Some other bad things that Columbus did were 1: he started the slave trade, 2: killed and tortured many Native Americans, 3: and demanded all the Native People’s gold, silver or anything worth something.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I don’t think that we should celebrate Columbus Day because it’s kind of like we are celebrating the day that Columbus took away people from the Taino tribe and turned them into slaves.
If we celebrate the day that Columbus took away the Tainos, it is just like saying, “yeah, go Columbus, make slaves and claim this other person’s land as your own. Don’t care if you kill a lot of people.”
I think that we really shouldn’t celebrate this day because when you celebrate something, it’s usually a happy thing that they are celebrating, not somebody that who something really wrong.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I think that Colubus Day is bad because Columbus isn’t a hero and we usually celebrate holidays about heroes. Do you think that he is a hero because he started colonization and war, and even genocide. Well, if you think that is a hero, then you are weird because we were colonized and I really hate that.
October 14th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I don’t think that everyone should celebrate Columbus Day because everyone has a different perspective of Christopher Columbus. I don’t celebrate it because I think that Columbus was very disrespectful to the Native Americans by taking them as slaves, even though he gave them small tokens of gratitude to the Native Americans when they gave the gifts of friendship. I also don’t celebrate Columbus Day because he did not discover America because somebody was already there. Also, Columbus started the genocide and colonization in the New World. Christopher Columbus was just an Italian who traveled a certain way to prove that the world was not flat.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I think we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day because when Columbus came to America, he thought he was in India and he gave the Native People the name Indians. The reason why he came to America was because he wanted the gold. He had so much greed that he caused the decline of the Arawak tribe. It says in Columbus’s son’s diary that Columbus’s men continuously shot volley at point blank range at the native Americans. We also shouldn’t have Columbus Day because how could he discover America, when there were already people there.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I think we should not celebrate Columbus Day because what are we celebrating him for? He killed many indigenous people, claimed the land, and took the native people’s riches.
I think Ms. Pecoraro has this perspective because her people were not the ones getting killed, robbed and betrayed by Columbus. Yes, I can understand her point of view because it is like if the Early Hawaiians searched for new land and found some. If people were there, we would have claimed the land as ours and killed their native people.
Still, Ms. Pecoraro did not change my point of view because another country still controls us and our destiny. We don’t want that. We want to control our own destiny.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I think that Ms. Pecoraro has this perspective because when she was growing up, her schools or her parents told her that Columbus was a hero. I also think that her parents said all the good things about Columbus, but didn’t tell all the bad things about him. That made Ms. Pecoraro think that he is a hero. If people think he is a hero, we should celebrate him. If he was just a criminal or a regular citizen, would you think that we would celebrate him? If we celebrated him as a criminal or a regular person, other people would get jealous and then we would have to celebrate a day for everyone.
I can understand her view because when you are a kid, you almost always believe what an adult says to you. Somehow, that lie spread out and changed history.
Before, I thought that Columbys gave non-essential things for survival to the Indians and then killed them while the Indians gave Columbus’s people things such as medicine and other essential items for survival. Now, the way I think about Columbus is different. I still think that he killed the Indians. The way Ms. Pecoraro changed my mind is to think not just the bad things about people, but also the good side. Some of the good things Columbus gave the Indians are guns. He also was the first recorded European to discover America. Also, he changed the paradigm that said, “The world is flat!” They also said if you sail west too far, you would fall off the edge of the Earth. When Columbus was the first recorded European to discover America, he proved that the earth was round. So, she partially changed my mind about Columbus.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
First of all, I think Ms. Pecoraro strongly believes in Columbus Day because she is Italian-American and Columbus was Italian. I don’t want to sound racist but I think that is the main reason she strongly believes in Columbus Day. But there are other reasons that I think she strongly believes in Columbus Day. Like I noticed that she believes strongly in our economical system, so I think she likes Columbus Day because if Columbus never came, the money thing wouldn’t have happen. If she was my teacher, she would have brainwashed me.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I think we should not have to celebrate this holiday because Columbus didn’t really help the population grow, he was bringing a population to an end. He did some things good like bring cattle to change the American diet, but the Native Americans were fine how they were before Columbus came.
The bad thing about the trade between the Native-Americans and the Europeans is that the Native Americans gave the Europeans really important things for them to survive, while and the Europeans gave them things they didn’t really care about.
I can see what Ms. Pecoraro was saying when she said this is not our land, it was our ancestor’s land. and that we should still continue the American or I should say Columbus’s way.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I have an add on to what I said before.
Ms. Pecoraro came in today and shared her perspective on Columbus. Her perspective on Columbus was much different then our class’ perspective on Columbus. She thinks Columbus day should be celebrated. I think she has this perspective because she grew up in New York and the schools and teachers probably have a different perspective, which means she probably learned that Columbus was a good man and he discovered America. But how can you discover a place if people already inhabit the land. I can understand why she thinks that Columbus Day should be celebrated because a lot of people do. I don’t think she can change her perspective on Columbus.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I think that we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus day because Columbus didn’t really discover America because there were people already living there. So what if Columbus brought animals. The animals ended up destroying the people’s land, and so what if Columbus brought the economic system. If the indigenous people didn’t have that. they would still be fine.
Columbus committed a lot of crimes like genocide and slavery. If I were Columbus, I would not want to have my accomplishments a holiday because all Columbus really did was kill off a lot of indigenous people and their culture, and he took their stuff.
Ms.Pecoraro probably thinks that we should celebrate Columbus Day because to Columbus helped her people by bringing over slaves to help make their life easier, also by bringing back stolen gold from another country. I still think that Columbus was not a good guy.
October 17th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I think that Ms. Pecoraro has this perspective because her teachers taught her that. But it’s not her teacher’s fought because it is her job to brainwash her. If you don’t know nothing about Columbus and you hear something, wouldn’t you believe in what you heard?
I can understand her point of view because she think Columbus is good, but still think he’s bad. That’s how we are different.
She still didn’t change my mind about Columbus.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I think that Ms. Pecoraro has this perspective because living in New York, your paradigm is that Columbus was a good person because he discovered America, and that he didn’t do anything bad to get that land. They never say anything bad about him or what he really did to get that land.
I can understand her point of view because it’s not the child’s fault that they were told untrue stories like when Columbus first saw the Tainos or as other people would say “Indians.” They probably learned that the native Americans were getting the water hot so that they could throw people into the stew pot and eat them like they were cannibals.
Ms. Pecoraro didn’t really change my mind because I still see Columbus as some rude selfish person that only wanted gold and land, and someone who almost committed genocide because today there aren’t very many people with Taino blood, and those who have Taino blood aren’t even full blooded.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I think Ms. Pecoraro has this perspective because all her life she has been only learning the good things about Columbus and since she is from New York, she is even harder to convince.
I can understand her point of view because if you were a regular person who did not learn some of the bad things that Columbus did, you would probably think that he is a hero just because he “found” and took more land for Spain.
No, she did not change my mind about Columbus. I still think Columbus is not a hero.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Another name for Columbus Day is Discoverer’s Day. Why is it called that? For one thing, Columbus DID NOT discover ‘America.’ There were already people there. THEY discovered it, the indigenous people.
Columbus, how much more ignorant can he be, thought he was in India and called the people Indians. We say he was wrong. So, we call the people Native Americans. But, they were never Americans. America was named when Amerigo Vespucci sailed to ‘America.’
Today, we had a debate if we should or shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day. I said that the indigenous people gave Columbus helpful things in life but he gave them silly things like necklaces and hats. The Pro-Columbus Day side had no counter-arguments for my arguments. They said that he brought cattle. That is true, but, the cattle brought diseases and destruction of the land. They also dug up lots of plants.
Ms. Pecoraro did not change my mind about Columbus Day. We tried to explain to her life without money. She couldn’t understand. I think that at her school they teach that Columbus is a hero. If she knew all the bad things he did, she would hate Columbus too. I know that if I was born and raised in New York, I would feel the same way as her.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I think we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day because Columbus didn’t help us. He just started bad things like the slave trade and killed the Native Americans. If Columbus didn’t come to America, then the Natives would still be here. I can understand that he thought it was India but he would still be doing those bad things to the Indians. Some people think very highly of Columbus, but to us we think that he just did bad things. Although he brought good things like technology we still think he is not a hero.
I think Ms. Pecoraro has this perspective because she was taught that Columbus did really good things for America. Also, maybe she was taught only the good things about him not the bad things he did.
I can understand her point of view because we were born in different places and maybe she was taught some things that I don’t know about Columbus and maybe I was taught some things that she was not taught about Columbus.
She did not change my mind about Columbus because l think that Columbus did bad things to us and did not do any good. Wait, I shouldn’t say any good because he changed the paradigm of peoples throughout the world by proving that the world was round. Also he did introduce new weapons like guns. But today that is used for bad things like killing. I am still con about the idea of having Columbus Day.
October 18th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I think that Ms. Pecoraro has this perspective of Columbus Day because she grew up in a town that celebrated Columbus Day and told kids only about the good thigs about him.
Ms. Pecoraro didn’t change my mind, but she did change the way how I felt about Columbus. I always thought that Columbus was a bad guy and that he did not do anything good, but now I feel like Columbus actually did do something good. He proved that the world was not flat!
October 19th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I think that we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day. I don’t think that we should celebrate it because Columbus didn’t help the indigenous people, he actually made things worse. He started a genocide and supported the slave trade. Columbus thought that he was in Asia but he actually landed in what we know now as America.
I think that Ms. Pecoraro has her perspective because she is Italian/American and Columbus is Italian. She was taught that Columbus was a hero and he did good things for the indigenous people.
I can understand her point of view because she was taught different things.
No! She didn’t change my mind about Columbus. I still don’t think that we should celebrate Columbus Day.
October 19th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I think we should not celebrate Columbus Day because he was a horrible man. He made slaves out of the Taino who helped him to survive in their country. Plus, the Taino gave helpful gifts but Columbus gave them weak gifts. Columbus only wanted the gold and riches of their land.
I think Ms. Pecoraro has the perspective that Columbus was a great man because she was raised Italian and Italians heard a different story about what happened. Well, since I’m Italian, I do really see her point that yes, he could have brought essentials and other great things. She did start to make me think that Columbus was a great man in some ways, but I still think that Columbus was a horrible man!
October 19th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
No, we should not celebrate Columbus Day because he was a horrible man. Some examples are that he made the Native Americans slaves and took over their land like it was nobody’s business. Columbus also ripped the Native Americans off when he gave them things like hats, bells, and capes when the Native Americans gave Columbus stuff he could actually use.
I could not understand Ms. Pecoraro’s perspective in any way shape or form. Ms. Pecoraro did not change my mind at all because she did not have any reasons that made an impact on me.
October 19th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I think we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day. We shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day because everybody thinks he was a great hero because he discovered America. Actually Columbus didn’t discover America because there were already the Native Americans living there. He actually was a horrible man because he started slavery when he brought Native Americans as slaves back to Spain. He brought the Taino people who helped him survive. When the Spaniards were running low on food, the Taimo people brought them spears so they could hunt and brought fishing poles to fish. In return, the Spaniards gave them hats and bead necklaces that were useless.
I think that Mrs. Pecoraro has this perspective because she only saw the good things about Columbus such as when he brought all these essential things back to Spain. Who cares that he killed a lot of Native Americans in the process. I could understand her point of view because of all the good explanations but he still was a person who killed people and started slavery in the New World.
October 19th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Okay, right now I’m half and half because of what Mrs.Pecoraro said and this time I am getting it from a person. I know she is telling the truth because it is not like the internet where it can tell you anything.
The reason that I am half and half is because Mrs. Pecoraro made a point that without him we would still probably be living the old ways, and as good at it sounds to go back to my culture and live it, I don’t really think I wanna change right now. So basically Colombus introduced civilization.
But the part that I’m battling with in my head is the part that says that Colombus started slavery and without him there would be more Native American people left in the world.
October 19th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
No, I do not think we should celebrate Columbus Day because he was the one who started slavery in the Americas. People think he is a hero because they have different perspectives and they only heard the good side of Columbus and not the bad side. Textbooks only mention the good side, so I can understand that some people have that kind of perspective.
I think Mrs. Pecoraro has this perspective because where she was born. Columbus was known as a great hero that made America what it is today. Since she has that kind of perspective, she had really strong arguments. It was really hard to change her mind about Columbus.
Yes, I can understand her point of view, but no she did not change my mind about Columbus.
October 19th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I don’t think we should celebrate Colombus Day because he wasn’t a hero as they say. It is said that he discovered America but did he really? Wasn’t there already people living on the land he supposedly discovered? I think that we should be able to learn all opinions and read different books to make our own decision.
So to me, Mrs. Pecoraro did not change my mind but she has the right to have her own beliefs. She can have her own perspective because she comes from a different place that would support Colombus Day and his celebration. I understand her point of view because as children, we are taught history and stories by our teachers whom we trust, and also our parents. We live in Hawaii and we believe in Hawaiian history and culture. So why shouldn’t it be the same for her?
October 20th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I don’t think we should celebrate Colombus Day because he wasn’t really a hero. He didn’t really discover America because there were already people there and he didn’t even help the Native Americans. He killed them, brought some of them back to Spain, and kept them as slaves. I think she has this perspective because she is Italian and because she was taught that Colombus was a hero from her surroundings. I can understand that she thinks Colombus was a hero because he did bring medicines to America and he did bring helpful foods, but he killed off most of the Tainos and he started a genocide. She did not change my mind about Colombus because to me he is still a lying explorer who stole.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I don’t think we should celebrate Columbus Day because he didn’t really discover anything. He stole the idea that the world is round and took over the Native Americans. He really didn’t find anything but a whole chunk of land and claimed it for Europe even when there were other peoples there.
I think that Ms. Pecararo thinks that we should celebrate Columbus Day because she grew up in New York and had been taught that Columbus was a hero. She didn’t change my mind because I learned all the horrible things that he did.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I don’t think we should celebrate Columbus Day because he started the slave trade in the Americas and people made us believe he discovered America and that he discovered the world is round. He also killed a lot of the native peoples.
.
Ms. Pecoaro didn’t change my mind.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I think that Mrs. Pecararo thinks that we should celebrate Columbus Day because when she was growing up in New York they always celebrated Columbus Day. They were taught that Columbus was a hero because he discovered America and when he sailed around the world, he proved that the world was round
. Really now, how could he discover America if the Native peoples were already there! Also the Greeks already knew that the world was round. The worst thing is that he also only wanted gold from the Tainos, and when the Tainos gave him food and shelter, he gave them beads and bells. Which one would you rather have?
October 20th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I don’t think that we should celebrate Coumbus Day because Columbus wasn’t a hero because there were people already there before Coumbus came and I also think that we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day is because he did slavery to the people who were already there before Columbus came.
Some bad things that Columbus did was that he did slavery, he did genocide and the conditions were so bad that the people he did it to wanted to commite suicide.
I think she has that perspective because no one really told her about the really bad things that he did like slavery. I couldn’t understand her argument about Columbus. Ms. Pecoaro didn’t change my mind but she had a really strong and understanding argument.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Hello Boys and Girls, I really enjoyed visiting you and your school. You really have much to be proud of!
I am sorry if any of you believe I was there to change your minds about Christopher Columbus. I was not. I was there to share my opinions which as you have noted, have been formed mainly by where I was born and raised on the East Coast of the USA.
I enjoyed the debate and would love to visit you again.
Feel free to write to me whenever you like.
Aloha!
December 17th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Add on to my other comment
No offense to you Ms. Pecoraro but you weren’t even close to changing my mind:)