Columbus: A Hero Or A Villian???

Posted by Vulnadia on Oct 12, 2009 at 06:52 AM Children are now being taught more about historical figures than ever before. In fact, according to this article, they are allowed to actually explore these people a lot more and even in some cases have had mock trials based on character traits and even "Flaws" thought to be known about them. What do you think about this? Should kids be being taught this way or should they be taught the old way in thinking where the explorers are "Hero's" hands down, plain and simple instead of the real people that they may have been? The information we have on historical characters is often sketchy to say the least and in many cases comes from accounts from other sides of the coin in most cases. Is this information jaded and biased or should we allow children to explore and study all possibilities regardless? Will this keep children from admiring them any more or less than they have before in many cases or will this help historical figures become more real and human and consequently more memorable than the flat base that they once were thought to be? Should the "Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492" jingle be set aside for more character analysis over plain fact and will this help children learn more on a subject? I myself have always been in a situation where I loved history. I grew up to actually work in an industry that focused on taking the historical characters, events and situations and made them more patron/user friendly. Sure, we took liberties here and there to breathe life into our historical characters, but we also had them rooted in more truth than anyone ever realized. Our jobs were to take often flat and sometimes little known people from history and deeds and make them presentable to a modern audience in a way that would entertain yet also educate them without them realizing that they were in fact learning quite a bit in fact & history. Mine is, after all, the child who went to class and told teacher that "I was the personal Guard to King Ferdinand of Spain"...and promptly announced that he had a severe flatulance problem...