Tuesday, October 19, 2010

In 1492...

Continuing our discussions here of myth-story vs. history, we watch this old thing on YouTube. Mikro watches silently. (I'm sitting there, just a bit anxious about the cartoon format and songs being appealing, despite the dreck content...) He doesn't comment, even when I start spouting off. Waits till the very end, completely serious, then looks at me and says vociferously:

"Horse poo."

Ah, yup.

Tomorrow I'll show him this one: Look at that Columbus with the Big Butt. I'm still debating on whether Dora the Conquistadora is appropriate for a 7 year old (mostly due to the Diego bit... Pre-screen this one, folks.

And for grownups, we have: The Truth About Columbus Day
and
Columbus: Continuation of a Genocidal Legacy.

Thanks to Adrienne at the Native Appropriations blog for many of these links.

4 comments:

Anet said...

Thanks Chele, I'll be checking these out.
We've been on the quest for truth with our homeschooling for a few years, history and religious.
It's tough with all the junk out there.
It's like I had to relearn history all over with my kids, from what the teachers in school had taught me.

Chele said...

Hi, Anet. I just ordered the book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" for myself, and I will probably be unearthing my old Zinn's "People's History" to reread and talk about with Mikro. "Rethinking Columbus" came in last night, and I haven't had a chance to look at it in detail. First impression is, it looks good.

It is tough to find resources amongst the swill. I've gotten good leads through Oyate and Debbie Reese's blog. We have used some of the things she takes issue with, but we have talked about why there are problems with it (like the Paul Goble stuff.) Yesterday we had a long talk about her blog and what an author's obligations to the truth are, or should be...

It really is amazing how much *I* learn (and un-learn) through homeschooling. I remember those thanksgiving plays in my school, and the putting of Columbus on a pedestal, and cringe. My dad always made sure we knew that it wasn't a true picture, and made vague noises about our native heritage, but we were raised culturally white, and he never went into the detail of how horrific things really were. (I won't either while Mikro is so young, but he's already gotten a much larger dose of reality than I did... Some of the inhumanity in the links I labeled "for grownups" was enough to make it hard for me to sleep last night...) That the lies are still going on today just really makes me mad.

Garden State Kate said...

Great links Chele!Thanks.:-)

Ruralmama said...

I love your no-nonsense history. We strive for that in our history lessons too, which means that often we've been stuck for what to teach, with all of the drivel out there. Thanks for the resources, I'm checking these out!

I nominated you for a bloggy award, if you are interested. You can find it here: http://homeschoolontheedgeofnowhere.blogspot.com/2010/10/when-life-gives-you-shock-stop-rubbing.html

Thanks for the truthful history resources, they are awesome!