Columbus in Space

by Susan Friedman

If Columbus were alive today, would he be an astronaut? The students in Marsha Love's fifth grade class don't treat history like, well, history. She brings the past alive for her students by asking them unusual questions: Why would some countries in Columbus's day sponsor explorers? Why did the United States sponsor a probe on Mars? What was Columbus's impact both on the Americas and on Europe? Could a probe going to Mars have an impact?

Love, who teaches at the Lakewood Elementary School in Modesto, California, asks students whether Columbus has an impact, not whether he was a hero or villain. "My goal in teaching about Columbus is to develop an understanding of the effect Columbus had within a historic context. Hopefully the children are developing the concept that what you do does have a consequence".

Love believes that kids can learn more about Columbus if they compare his actions to the explorers of today -- astronauts. Love's class also learns about the development of navigation, from the improvement of rudders to the style of sails. They learn about Prince Henry of Portugal and the countries that sponsored navigation. Then they do a comparison with something that's going on in the present. "We jump from the past to the present to try to predict the impact on the future," Love says.

So, how much water would you need if there were 25 people sailing with Columbus and each person drank eight eight ounce glasses of water each day? If you were a fifth grader at the Feist Elementary School in Houston, Texas, you'd have to answer this math question. Or how about this grammar problem? Fix the following sentence -- "columbus named the island san salvador." Since the Texas state language and math tests are so important, teachers often integrate facts about Columbus and other historical figures into math and language lessons, according to Lyn Baker, a fourth grade teacher at Feist Elementary.

In the fifth grade, teachers can choose to teach a lesson that explores whether or not Columbus should be considered a hero. Working in groups, kids read three articles on Columbus. They then discuss, and present to the class what they think. One article treats Columbus as a great explorer. Another paints him as a middle-of-the-road navigator who just happened to stumble upon the Americas. The third presents Columbus as a deplorable person who enslaved Native Americans and caused much suffering. According to Baker, "How well this exercise goes over depends on the group of kids. One year, the kids really got into discussing the different perspectives on Columbus. Another year, some of the children couldn't get beyond the fact that some may not consider Columbus a hero. They were very upset about this."

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