Columbus Day is the day the great Portuguese explorer Christopher Columbus ‘found’ the Americas. When one was younger, teachers had students make Indian feather headdresses and tomahawks, pilgrim hats, and taught them the famous ‘in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.’ Columbus was a hero.
Now that we are older, Columbus’ hero stance is being questioned. First, he did not know that he was even in America; he believed he had found the alternate route to India. Hence the name ‘Indians’ for aboriginals.
Columbus was in search of fame, riches, and land. He did not treat the Indians very well and he was not even the first to find the Americas. Leif Erikson, the Viking, was.
“We should have school off and celebrate Leif Erikson day, who was the man who actually landed in America first,” said Samuel Myers, 10.
Yet some schools do still get Columbus Day off. Many do not, though, which is much different than in the past, when Columbus Day was just as important as Presidents’ Day or Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“I think as little kids teachers over-sold the idea of Columbus and encouraged us to celebrate him ‘discovering’ the New World. I don’t think we should get the day off.
I mean it would be nice, but do we get off for when Verrazano sailed along the North Atlantic coast? No. Columbus did enslave and kill countless natives, so I don’t think he should be accredited with a special ‘discovery’ or be held as high as Martin Luther King Jr. or Abraham Lincoln,” said Alejandra Garcia, 10.
Columbus did “discover” the New World in the sense that he was the first of that time period to reach the Americas and bring the news back to Europe. He brought back important geographical and scientific information.
“No, I don’t think that Columbus should be celebrated and we should have school off. People praise him for something that was already claimed territory be the American Indians.
America has always been there and it was not right for him to show up and say ‘I found this and I shall call it what I please without giving a thought to the people that were here first.’
Although I feel this way, I do commend him for proving that the world is not flat, but it doesn’t make sense to give credit where credit is not due,” said Dor’thea Lumpkin, 12.
Columbus was not a perfect person, no one was. Everyone must weigh the pros and cons of his thoughts and actions, and decide for themselves if he qualifies as a zero or a hero. For more information on Columbus, visit http://www.history.com/topics/columbus-day.
