It seems that, way back in their young elementary school years, my eighth graders somehow unearthed the newly discovered fact that Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims shared the first Thanksgiving. I thought we had gotten that little misconception all sorted out last month, when we were studying early European explorations of the Americas. However, Christopher Columbus and his voyage on the Mayflower made a re-appearance last week as we began to talk about the early English settlements of Jamestown and Plimouth.
Me: Ok, look guys: Christopher Columbus was an Italian who sailed on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, from Spain, in 1492, to what we now call the Carribean. The Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower, from England, in 1619, to what became Massachusetts. Different nationalities, different boats, 130 years and 1000 miles apart.
One young man, imploringly: "But then, Ms. C, how did Christopher Columbus get on the Mayflower?
Me, in utter exasperation: Christopher Columbus was never anywhere near the Mayflower!
Entire class, in deflated astonishment: Oh.
When I related this story to my family, they noted that it would have in addition been a most unlikely event in either the 1400s or the 1600s for an Italian Catholic captain to share sailing space with a band of English Puritans.
We are, indeed, making a tiny bit of progress in our effort to provide room for all Americans. So, whether you are of Native American, European Catholic or Protestant, Mideastern or European Jewish, African, Arab, Muslim, Asian, Hindu, Buddhist, Southern Pacific or any other descent: Happy Thanksgiving to All!
12 comments:
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family also. I hope you are feeling much better today.
I'm going to have to remember to quiz my kids on their understanding of Thanksgiving this afternoon in the car on our way to the first of our dinners!
Ay-yi-yi. My college students, many of them, are under the same impression! An honors section of Comp. II I've taught for a number of years focuses on American myths, starting with Columbus and ending with the present day. Heavy dose of reality on 19th C. Indian Wars and Vietnam. But lo and behold, I clicked on the AOL journal on the Journals page two days ago and there was the story: Columbus on the Mayflower. (It's still there; check it out). I e-mailed her and recommended some Native American/Thanksgiving sites. So I KNOW what you're going through. Will this myth never diiiiiiie?!
I gotta say, Columbus at the first Thanksgiving was one I had never heard. What's up with that, anyway? What in the world do they TEACH kids in school these days? I'm sure I was more familiar with history than that before I was thirteen. Yeesh! Lisa :-]
AMENDMENT! I went back to the holiday journal that is on the AOL Journal page and I see she has CHANGED the story. Gone is the one with Columbus on the Mayflower. She has replaced it with a story that's more from a native P.O.V. instead of purely European (and wrong). The worst aspect of the story she had on her site before, even worse than having Columbus on the Mayflower, was how it presented Native Peoples. It said that Columbus met people with "funny colored skin." I'm so glad she took the story down, and she acknowledges her mistake. That was good to see.
I have never heard that before! CC at Thanksgiving! What a hoot. Glad you are feeling better.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, hugs, judi
I live 20 miles from Plimoth Plantation and 1600 miles from San Salvador. Right at this moment, I'd reeeeaaaalllly like to reverse those distances.
My son informed us the other day that everything he know about Cortes and the Mexicans & gold he learned from a movie! As I banged my head against the wall, I reminded him of the chapters we studied for and the wonderful Social Studies teacher he had last year. Geez, it's like his brain is fried at 11 years old.
Weird yet wonderful, the connections made in young minds! That they have you to straighten them out is a blessing -- to all of us! Love reading your journal!
Love that story! Andrea's meaningful concept of the whole thing: they didn't even have electricity. Blessings, Penny
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