http://www.criticalthink.info/Phil1301/lieshist.htm i already know Columbus didn't do any good, but still! i didnt know columbus didnt discover america till the 8TH GRADE! if you read the link you'll see what im talking about, and wholeheartedly agree with this staement: "Christopher Columbus introduced two phenomena that revolutionized race relations and transformed the modern world: the taking of land, wealth, and labor from indigenous peoples, leading to their near extermination, and the transatlantic slave trade, which created a racial underclass" but i want to know why they leave all the REAL information out of most of our education? not sure about you, but MY school made Lincoln a hero cause he freed the slaves, when in fact he OWNED slaves, and only set them free to count them as votes!! WHY are we taught to view these people as heroes!? and i know someones gonna say 'if it wasnt for them we wouldnt be here!', but seriously!? americas history is practically founded on exactly what the link says!
I ask these same questions upon entering college. Guess they weren't worried that I could easily Google the actual information later on.
Why? Because they are unqualified. That's why. I remember when a school teacher said that the reason the Spanish Armada was defeated was because the Spanish ships were to big and the got stuck in the English Channel. A history teacher once told me that the reason we won World War 1 was because American soldier's were larger than normal, so upon first sight, the German soldiers ran away. Science teacher were no better. They don't upgrade their skills nor keep up with the latest findings. I don't remember exactly what it was, but, we had to make the teacher aware of the latest findings in class. The student was teaching the teacher.
It can be a variety of things. The simplest is of course that the teacher doesn't know what they're talking about. More complicated though, is that a lot of times, good and bad are not clear cut and easily distinctive. Was Lincoln bad because he owned slaves or good because he freed them? Is it possible to be both good AND bad?
What did Columbus do that was so much worse than what humans everywhere had been doing for eons before him in some form or fashion? People today are too perfectionistic in their views of history. They act like our species was all born polite. When in reality, politeness is a rather new phenomenon. For most of our history, we've been pretty savage creatures. And it was largely the Judeo-Christian values of western culture that made us more polite. Nonetheless, if you insist on viewing things as worthless because they are not perfect, then I have some bad news for you. All of human history, including that which has yet to be written, will always seem ugly to you. Because it will never be perfect. It will always be laced with violence, hate, negativity, oppression, and destruction. Because that's what human beings do. It's in our nature. The goal isn't to eradicate it but to do our best to minimize it. And so you take the bad with the good. You simply look for the most optimal ratio of good to evil.
In the 6th grade we were supposed to be taking World History (I was in the advanced class because I scored well on a course, which makes this much worse). Everything that happened in the history of the world had to do with Egypt. EVERYTHING. The Civil War (US), the Panama Canal, JFK being assassinated, Margaret Thatcher being a cold hearted...oh um, yeah. I don't know why. Lady had issues. Oh, and Buddha was a God because his mother gave birth to him while standing.
