Christopher Columbus Research Paper

American History as its taught today in the K-12th grades fits quite well with the Banking Concept of teaching. Teach, memorize, repeat. Even given that history books themselves are so big with so much information it leaves teachers unable to truly allow students the opportunity to do more than just get the facts and move on to the next and gives little time for discussion. There are many parts of history that aren’t often enough questioned or studied. Teachers are depositing history that is much closer to fiction than fact to our students and due to the governments involvement in whats taught it is not giving the generations younger than us the opportunity to comprehend how the US ended up in the condition it is in today, therefore missing

the opportunity for change. We celebrate Christopher Columbus as soon as we enter the school system, theres a holiday just to commemorate all hes done for the US. From that point on the innocence of our youth is their ignorance and the governments tool in defining their reality to fit the preferred mold of American history. In Lies My Teacher Told Me, written by James W. Loewen he illustrates the many events that are taught with lack of evidence, fact or truth. Interesting enough he brings up the idea, “ Cherishing Christopher Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not American history” (Loewen, 64) Have we been celebrating and learning and adhering to a white history? After all what exactly did Christopher Columbus do for the people already inhibiting The New World he so called “discovered”?

In 1493 Christopher Columbus was the first recorded to display cognitive dissonance toward the Natives in the “New World” which is also displayed in the current American culture toward minorities and women.

When Christopher Columbus found the “New World” he basically made the Natives out to be a “lower class”, enslaving, dismembering and raping the people. Natives who to this day never gotten back sacred land taken from them over the years. From Christopher Columbus's European discovery of America up until today we have been taught that the white colonialism of the “New World” has been anything short of the beginning of the American way. Commemorating him finding an already inhibited land shows the governments true lack for history and need for control over the people. If the Government can control our history books and teaching they surely do have an upper hand at leading us into a desired future to their liking. Our teachers and textbooks have failed to state the obvious negative history along with the positive history that has happened in the US thus shrinking us down to merely a part of history rather than history itself. Along with the Banking Concept of teaching we are doomed to continue to stay oppressed in our “land of the free” if we are not allowed to analyze and critically think about the true history of this

country.

Hellen Keller is another example of miswritten history.

A beautifully decorated yet undermined historical figure. The teaching of American History does not only leave out the bad parts of history yet the extreme or less socially accepted acts, hence Hellen Keller. We all know what she was, deaf and blind, she learned to read, write and speak as well as graduating from college. Hellen Keller was born in 1880 and dies in 1968 as James W. Loewen states in Lies My Teacher Told Me there is about 60 years of her life that we don’t know about. Hellen Keller is portrayed merely as a tame woman who overcame her disability rather than the radical socialist and humanitarian she was. Hellen Keller was part of many movements, women's suffrage and helping found the American Civil Liberties Union. To only celebrate her as a woman overcoming great feats as a disabled person is truly to give much less acknowledgment to all that she worked and fought for. She researched blindness finding that it was “concentrated on the lower class” (Loewen, 14) men blinded in industrial jobs and prostitutes from syphilitic blindness. This is a great example of someone who has been “dumbed down” in our history. Hellen Keller was so much more than just a woman who overcame two disabilities she was a radical socialist in the early 1900's! She proved to be much more in our history than she is given praise for. Maybe because US government would prefer we only know the prim, woman who overcame life’s challenges

and not that she engaged in the challenges of life as well. Some of the history of Hellen Keller don't support the ideals taught in Americas history. In Hellen Keller's circumstance her story outside of her disabilities proved to be much too controversial for textbooks and teachings.

Lets speed up to the here and now because our recent history is too continuing a pattern of lost reality. Regardless if we are told racism no longer exists those of us who live in this country experience day to day racism in one form or another. This is just another example of how the government try’s so hard to push something on us regardless of reality. Bill Clinton was known and decorated as a president for “all the people” meaning all races. He may have elected hundreds of Black politicians into his cabinet and had a large minority following but some of the bills he passed say he was less than interested in rehabilitating or structuring the minorities who are oppressed and stuck in the vicious cycle of the system. When elected he promised to enact the first healthcare and anti-crime bill stating that the anti-crime bill was his top priority he allotted $30 billion dollars to fund the bill. All of which basically went to hiring more new police officers, building more prisons, and giving incentives to states that incarcerate illegal immigrants. Clinton also proposed a welfare reform that would force women to work after 2 years of welfare without welfare pay or job training or assistance of any kind. To understand these oppressed neighborhoods is like the unveiling of an ancient artifact, neighborhoods oppressed and crime ridden are not going to be fixed from one bill they need a whole new foundation and structure to rebuild and grow. Along the increased wealth gap in the US and the decline in government funding for welfare and funding for programs for the poor, those in need are finding it much harder to get by let alone just survive. Presidential influence and propaganda often beautifully and patriotically decorate the true intent of government. Although Clinton seemed to be the model of unity he proved different.

Not only are Americans more patriotic then ever they are also more blind and numb to the truth. For hundreds of years we have been taught history as his-story, not exactly history. We find political, historical and social truths all around us yet we are slow or less than eager to discuss, question or at the very least mind them. Some who are able and willing to seek, find and tell the truth are often times ridiculed as “conspiracy theorists” yet conforming to the history and news given to us promises a country of robots which would seem quite fitting for a society who wants to “create” history and uses a Banking Concept teaching.“ A gift consists not of what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”(Seneca) Should we be surprised that there are many more historical figures and events that have “built character” for their stories. We must give ourselves the power and authority to question what is going on around us, question what is told to us, question our history. As we continue the Banking Concept of teaching we are becoming less connected to the world we are living in. Only with critical thinking and analyzing any and all the information given to us will we truly know its validity until we have sought it out on our own. Only then are we able to choose who our victors and not so victorious are.