In October in the United States' school children get a day off in commemoration of Christopher Columbus' arrival to the continent. Even though, there is no confirmation of Christopher Columbus' place of birth, the Columbus day is now primarily celebrating Italian heritage. The problems are a few.
Problem 1: Christopher Columbus' arrival to the continent was not the unique event I was raised to believe in. Others had beat him to this feat; not only had they beat him but they had successfully developed sophisticated, long-lasting nations, cultures and traditions unlike the ones seen in Europe. While the Europeans struggled in the wilderness of the new continent, the wilderness proved quite welcoming to the already living here inhabitants. Even for europeans this arrival and 'discover' was nothing unheard of; after all Norway folks have been taking the voyage for a while. Chances are also that African sailors had visited long before Columbus and with inside information from the African continent, the Spanish and Portuguese sponsored trips of discovery.
Problem 2: Christopher Columbus was a brutal person, as were all that followed him. In the name of God he justified slavery, genocide and rape. In the absence of scientific knowledge, but in the sea of theologically-driven ignorance, he and the ones that followed advertised that God is on their side. More or less like the extreme jihadists today.
Problem 3: The white race has written a white history of the united states, but also lived white history. It is a historical fact that US internal and foreign policies have violated the very founding document of this country by deliberately stripping select, undesirable groups of their fundamental human and constitutional rights. The first undesirables were the inhabitants of this continent that Columbus encountered. The second class of undesirables were the african american slaves. Once people lived here for a few generation a convenient third class was established, the immigrant class. Italians and other southern europeans, Eastern Europeans, Jews, Asians, Latin Americans were all undesirable and policies were put in place and enforced to discriminate against them, and subdue them to the category of last class citizens.
In November, the United States' school children again find themselves celebrating an invented holiday. An event that holds all hypocrisy of this country within it. Native Americans are conventionally pictured as naked, and uncivilized; as savage, as dumbs enticed by shiny trinkets. Conquerors are pictured as sophisticated, brave, enlightening, send-from-the-Gods, the best thing to ever happened to this land. The holding hands story of the Thanksgiving feast is an invention that makes the american feel good by not contemplating crtitically the negative actions of its anscestors. The egocentric holiday is how US citizens today continue to not understand how their government's actions home and abroad impacts the world's response to them. The Thanksgiving holiday lulls the brain into the belief of the perpetual good guy that the US is, and of course builds the premise which is so hard to refute, because after all if you are the good guy, if you do everything right, why is not everyone liking you. Ask my brother. If he is such a good guy, why aren't we head-over-heels in love with him; why did his wife end her life?
In December we will begin our critical study of US history. We have read books here and there, we have had discussions, but it is important for me to eradicate the false good-guy image that the educational system is trying so hard to build in my kids' minds.
We started with two books: Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne and Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young.
Voices in the Park retells the same event four times, each time by the point of view of one of the four persons involved. The details are amazing. The first voice is a busy, working mother, who is so stressed, she hardly speaks to her son; and who hardly notices her surroundings and when she does her judgement is quick. For example, she sits on a park bench, and two people are ready sitting there but occupied with pondering dinner she does not notice them. She does notice one of them when she realizes that her son is not sitting next to her. Looking briefly at the man on the bench, who looks shabby in his clothing, she swiftly concludes that he is dangerous, a creep. The second voice is that the of the man the mother just concluded is a creep. Turns out he is facing tough time looking for work, and the only thing that brightens his day is the walk to the park with his daughter, and her cheerfulness on the way back home. He does not jump into judging the mother or the son or their dog at all; he too is occupied with his outstanding problem-finding a job-but does not jump to label or belittle. The third voice is the woman's son. He is a sad boy. Quite well off but sad, bored, because of lack of communication. His day brightens as he encounters the man's daughter and he discovers along side her all the joys in the park. The fourth and final voice is that of the little girl, the man's daughter. She is cheerful throughout; she brightens two people's days. The details in the pictures, the characters' moods reflected in the changes in the weather on their respective pages; the fonts used to represent each one-the business-as-usual font used for the mom, the heavy bold font used for the dad, the dull fading font used for the son, and the cheerful, comic style font used for the girl all reflect their inner worlds. Would the story be a story if only one told it. Yes, of course. Would it give you satisfaction? Possibly. Would it give you complete view of each person? Nope. At the very least you will think the man is just a creep. While there are more in the park who experience this event, the four together provide a better interpretation, an opportunity for the reader to reflect, to think, to draw conclusions, to build an opinion. This is the true power of this picture book. The voices of many give you power to understand, to be empathetic, to understand and to want to understand others. So, if one follows party lines and listens to party-line sources only, one is deliberately depriving oneself from the opportunity to be a human being, but instead becomes a robot. We need to listen to the other side, and we need to critically assess what the other side says, and if untrue call it out. Eventually the lies will be broken.
Seven Blind Mice is lovely. Full of beautiful simple illustrations which would appeal to anyone. When I first encountered the book I used it to emphasize colors and days of the week. It served me well. However, this gem offers more than colors and days of the week. There are so many things to discuss.
1. Each mouse reports observing one element of the Something, and her association with something familiar. Well, to get to some of the elements a mouse must pass through other elements, and yet the mouse selectively chooses one of these elements to reveal. The question is does the mouse also share information about other elements, and if not how does she choose which one to talk about. In her choice is the mouse deliberately withholding information from the rest, is she trying to be unique, etc.
2. The white mouse apparently explorers the entire Something. How does she know that she has explored the whole Something, if she is blind? How do we know that we have all knowledge? We never know. We draw opinions based on the best current knowledge we have but this leaves us with the possibility to be able to change our opinions in the light of new information. This is important. No absolute truths exist. There are no absolute right answers. We have best answers for the current state of information availability. This is very important to know. How is she absolutely certain in her final assessment? Could other Something exist which have these characteristics. Maybe we haven't encountered them yet but maybe we can try to draw one? It is hard to draw something new when someone has already biased you by feeding you a truth. This is very important.
3. We as readers play God. We 'know' the answer and probably laugh at the mice. Does God laugh at us? Does it matter if he is deliberately withholding information from us. Another good question to ponder.
So what did I want to drive home with my kids at the onset of our first truthful visit to history lane. When we read anything we need to have our questions ready:
1. who is telling me this
2. why are they telling me this, what is their goal, what are they trying to make me believe
3. how are they telling me their message, what words, what images are they using
4. are they withholding information from me, what questions do i have
5. where can i look for the answers to my questions.
Children are occupied with so much, and all time-pressing, that they are effectively deliberately not allowed to think and to reflect, but thinking and reflecting is precisely what they need to learn to do, and precisely what they need to be given time for.
The book that inspired me is Lies that My Teachers Told Me
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