TAMPA, Fla. — Jeffrey Kolowith's kindergarten students take a journey to the New World on three paper ships and place a picture of Christopher Columbus on a timeline.
The students learn about the explorer's significance — though they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend.
"I talk about the situation where he didn't even realize where he was," Kolowith said. "And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy."
Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday today. Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after he reached the Caribbean and the suffering of the indigenous populations.
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"The whole terminology has changed," said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. "You don't hear people using the world 'discovery' anymore like they used to: 'Columbus discovers America.' Because how could he discover America if there were already people living here?"
In McDonald, Pa., about 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year — charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.
"In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy," teacher Laurie Crawford said.
Of course, the perspective given varies across classrooms and grades. Donna Sabis-Burns, a team leader with the U.S. Department of Education's School Support and Technology Program, surveyed teachers nationwide about the Columbus reading materials they used in class for her University of Florida dissertation. She examined 62 picture books and found the majority were outdated and contained inaccurate — and sometimes outright demeaning — depictions of the native Taino population.
Columbus Day is an especially sensitive issue in places with larger native American populations.
Many people recall decades ago when there was scant mention of indigenous groups in discussions about Columbus.
Kracht remembers a picture in one of his fifth-grade textbooks that showed Columbus wading to shore with a huge flag and cross.
"The indigenous population was kind of waiting expectantly, almost with smiles on their faces," Kracht said. " 'I wonder what this guy is bringing us?' Well, he's bringing us smallpox, for one thing, and none of us are going to live very long."
Kracht said an emerging multiculturalism led more people to investigate the cruelties suffered by the Taino population in the 1960s and '70s.
However, there are people who believe the discussion has shifted too far. Patrick Korten, vice president of communications for the Catholic fraternal service organization the Knights of Columbus, recalled a note from a member who saw a lesson at a New Jersey school.
The students were forced to stand in a cafeteria and not allowed to eat while other students teased and intimidated them — apparently so they could better understand the suffering indigenous populations endured, Korten said.
"My impression," Korten said, "is that in some classrooms, it's anything but a balanced presentation, that it's deliberately very negative, which is a matter of great concern because that is not accurate."
