During class, we discussed the article, "Teaching History so Children Will Care." It made me really think about the effects teachers have in teaching the "unsanitized" version of Columbus and who he really was. I believe that teachers should be able to teach what they want in the classroom, whether that be the real truth about Columbus, or the watered down version. What I am concerned with is, what will happen the next year with a new teacher who teaches the "sanitized" version to a student who was taught the real truth the year before? How will the student react to this?
I think the student will be flustered about the whole subject and not know which teacher to believe. Will this make the student start to doubt texts, and lose interest in the subject altogether? After all, if I were told two different stories, I would not know which one to believe.
As the teacher in this situation, what would you do? I think the teacher would need to have a plan on what actions to take for this child.
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When I was in eighth grade, one of our big assignments was a research paper. Our Social Studies and Language Arts teachers team taught the unit, so they could better support the students with two experts. My teachers introduced the unit and assignment with an example of the mistreatment of Native Americans by Christopher Columbus. I remember sitting in class absolutely amazed and shocked by what I was hearing, and my first reaction was to research. With the help of my teacher, I developed a thesis and began working. Unfortunately, with all my resources at my school and local library, I was struggling to find reliable sources and eventually had to switch my topic. Although the details may be irrelevant, I think it is important to look at my teacher's reaction. He could have led me astray, but instead he informed me that I was taking on a challenge, and helped nurture the challenge by allowing me to research a controversial topic and helped me find reliable sources. As hard as it is, I think it is important for a teacher to take a stand and eventually teach the truth of Columbus, and in turn perhaps have a variety of resources (with multiple perspectives) available for the students to in turn form their own opinion. In my opinion, that is a very beneficial approach, for it allows students to analyze texts and make their own informed decisions.
I think this is an interesting point. I agree that teachers should be able to teach what they want and what they are comfortable with. However, if a teacher wants to teach the truth about a topic, such as Columbus, then he or she should not have to worry about what teachers in prior grades have taught. I believe that it is important that students learn a topic from different perspectives. If a teacher is afraid of the way a student may respond if they were taught the traditional Columbus story, then the teacher can just approach her lesson as a different perspective on what happened. The story that the student was told by another teacher was a perspective, and the one they are learning now is a different one. It doesn't have to be posed as one teacher is telling the truth and the other is not. It's just a matter of who is "telling the story."
I don't think students will be all that flustered. This would not be the first thing that they have learned in life that teachers might have different perspectives on. I do feel however that as a teacher if you are going to teach the “unsanitized” version of Columbus, then you need to make sure that you are clear that this is just one perspective. Who says that perspective that I would teacher is the same that any of you would teach. I feel that teachers just need to always make this very clear to students that teaching about Columbus or anything else, that there are always more perspectives. As to the idea of dealing with one specific child, I would make sure to talk to that student one on one. It is important to just explain things to the student, but not completely disregard what another teacher may have taught. Students can't doubt their text based on one history lesson. This is why it is completely up to you as a teacher to show students that textbooks are not wrong but may not always be agreed upon with everyone else. Your classroom is a place for you to feel comfortable with your teaching and if you feel you need to teach your students something different then the text, then you should. You just have to always be willing to explain your reasoning and know that what you are teaching is important.
Although there isn't a spot on a lesson plan template for, "Other perspectives and background that the child was exposed, or may have been exposed to, about this topic," I would now consider this before teaching lessons such as, "Christopher Columbus." As aegree2 stated, students may become flustered hearing two different stories about the same topic. I would say that during the opening of a lesson, I would ask the students what they already know about the topic and how they came to know that; in this case what they know about Columbus. Possibly using a K-W-L chart would be appropriate for this particular topic. When presenting the information, I would tell the children that this is another point of view, and maybe it would clear up any "misconceptions" that the children have before hearing my lesson. Completing a K-W-L could allow the teacher to see/assess what children got out of the lesson/lessons, and if it was confusing for the class. Up front though, I would ask what they have heard, would not "dismiss" what they had to say, and tell them what I am going to present.
I do not think that knowing or fearing that the children heard something else should scare the teacher from presenting these particular topics. Our purpose is to give them knowledge and in this case, it should not be filtered. Children need to come up with their own opinions and ideas about everything; opportunities for critical thinking need to be there. Tiny things that teachers do in the beginning, during, or the closing of a lesson can do wonders for the child. We shouldn't assume that children will get flustered; we tend to not give them enough credit when it comes to what they're capable of.
I think this is a difficult to deal with as a teacher, but I do believe that we need to teach the truth regardless of what other teachers may teach about Columbus. Amber, you brought up a really good point that your students may have learned about the opposite viewpoint the year before or may learn this opposite viewpoint the year after you teach it. I think that if it was taught differently by the teacher before you, that you can just build off of what they already know and then begin to add the other perspective. You don't have to say their last teacher was wrong to do this, but instead, take what they have learned, and bring it to a deeper level by exploring other perspectives. By exploring the perspectives of the Native Americans, students will hopefully be able to discover for themselves the "truth about Columbus" and how he was not as wonderful as they may have heard before. When they read different stories or accounts from these other viewpoints, they will be able to discuss how each of these people felt, and then come to their own realizations or opinions of Columbus through this. They will already have this basis for thinking about other perspectives during your class, so if their teacher the next year approaches this topic differently, hopefully they will still be able to analyze the information they are given and think deeply about the subject. It would be great if the school as a whole came to a "decision" about how to teach about Columbus, but if not, they will be more familiar with how to look at and analyze the viewpoints of others and can continue to use their crtical thinking skills all throughou their educational careers and their lives.
My comment is not directly related to Columbus, yet I feel it is still relevant. Today, my CT read a book aloud to the class about how the Pilgrams got to American and what happend when they got there. I was curious about how accurate this book actually was. The Indians were stereotypical in the pictures and seemed to be helpful when in reality I am sure they were not too happy since they eventually were moved out.
A book read in the Library this week was called: She Helped Give Us Thanksgiving. It is a story about Sarah Hale who wrote letters to multiple presidents. After years of writing letters, Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a National Holiday. I thought it was pretty amazing that one person's persistence can change so many lives.
All students enter our classrooms with different experiences and background knowledge, as well as different perspectives. I don't know about the Elgin school district but in Wheeling School District 21 the 5th grade curriculum is centered around the concept of conflict and perspective. During the year we teach a lot about perspectives and this lends itself great to talking about the truth behind many misconceptions. It also is a great way for us to introduce primary documents. Many teachers think if they use a primary document, that is wonderful and great and that is the whole story. However, primary documents can provide many different perspectives of the same story or situation. I liked the idea of thinking through before you teach a lesson what students might mentally bring with them when they start the lesson. As a new teacher I would not worry about what happens if a teacher down the road gives a conflicting lesson because if we do our job correctly we are arming students with enough knowledge to apply and transfer to different classrooms, situations and contents. The student when they leave our classroom should have learned enough about the content to provide ample reasons why their version of the content is arguable, possible and the truth, compared to the one the teacher may present
I think that if teachers teach a different perspective on Columbus, they should tell the students just that, that they are teaching about Columbus from a different perspective. Students will understand that their teachers are different and have different views, so that is why they teach about the same subject in different ways. Look at math for example, teachers have different ways that they solve the same types of problems, and different teachers will teach different strategies. The students understand that the strategy the teacher is teaching them is just their perfered strategy. The same goes for any other subject in school. Teachers will teach a subject from their point of view, and students understand that from an early age. I think that if a teacher wants to teach their students the truth about Columbus, they should. As long as the teacher tells the students that this is a different perspective and what their previous teachers have taught them is not a lie, it is from a much different perspective.
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