The Significance of Columbus Day as Told by my Freshmen (May God have mercy on their souls).

Some questions are better left unanswered.  I should realize this by now but I'm a big believer in "the benefit of the doubt" and it always comes back to smack me right in the face.


With today being Columbus Day and us being in school I had my freshmen log on to our agenda and create a journal entry prior to our lesson on Columbus Day and Christopher Columbus.

This was my prompt:

Take the first 5-10 minutes of class to journal about what you know about Christopher Columbus.  Give your opinion on him and why we celebrate a holiday in his name.

I should have known I was setting myself up.  Especially when I did this activity last year with my sophomores.  I started reading responses during my 2nd hour plan and I couldn't stop laughing at some of them.  This again, is stuff I could not make up.  I cut and pasted the best responses into e mail and sent them to myself so I could share them with all of you.  These entries are unedited, spelling errors, "facts" and all.

Prepare to be rendered speechless: (my commentary is in red)

• He was the first person to find Columbus Ohio.Because if it wasnt for him Ohios capitol probly woudnt be Columbus. 

• Christopher Columbus was from Great Brittan.  He then took 3 ships and his main sip was the called the Mayflower(1492 Columbus 1620 Mayflower).  In 1492 he disovered America.  We celebrate  holiday in his name because he discovered America and brought imigrants over with him .

• I know that Christopher Colunmbus discovered America. He is spanish( he was Italian born in Genoa).. He sailed across the ocean in 1492, on the Mayflower(Again with the Mayflower!!).  I think he is a good guy. We celebrate a holiday in his name, because he discovered america.

• Christopher Columbus sailed across the world on the mayflower with the pilgrims(WITH the pilgrims!) and they discovered America. So i think that Christopher is a good guy and we should celebrate him as a holiday because he discoverd America.

• christopher colombus was the founder of ohio. celebrate colombus day because it would not be called colombus if he did not find 

• The only thing that I know about Christopher Columbus is that he come over because he wanted to find realious freedom (huh?)

•  He landed near present day New York City (REALLY?) and he founded America. In my opinion he is a pretty cool guy since he found the best country in the world 

• . He is spanish. He ate with pilgrims i believe at th first dinner (yikes)

• He is a british man from britant. (Where exactly is "britant"?)

• Christopher Columbus sailed acros the ocean. Also the holiday we celebrate for him is thanksgiving (Not one but TWO holidays!). We celebreate this for him becasue he was the one who brought the native americans and them together and made peace. And they had a big dinner (Columbus the Peace Maker....)

• Christopher Columbus was the first to discover America 1492. We celebrate this holiday because he somewhat created the civiliation for the country (Because the Indiginous people already here were savages and acted like animals?) . But i also think the indians came with him so he shared the dicscovery. (Came with him where?  To Española?  To New York City?  To meet the pilgrims??)

• Christopher Columbus basically founded America. He was sailing and, reached America in 1482. There was a saying made for him Chritopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1482. The Native Americans' were here but, he said he founded America . I think we celebrate this because if he didn't find America none of us would be here , and civilized (Again with the civilized!  And about 12 years too early as well).

• Christopher Columbus was the first person to discover america.  He was on the May Flower (Again with the May Flower!)

• Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. We celebrate a holiday in his name because he showed that we won the war (Who's we?  What war?). He had the flag up when he landed on shore. It showed that America was here (Kind of like Neil Armstrong?  The Mayflower has landed?).

• I dont think he discovered America, but history books says he did. We celebrate Thanksgiving in onor of him because when he came to America the pilgrims set up a feast and now we have a holiday after him. He sailed the seas and came to America in 1492. I beleve the indians discovered America because they were on the land before Christopher and the pilgrims were (At least we clarified that).

Wow.  Yikes.  That's all I could say.  I have no idea who was being a smartass and who really believed what they wrote.  This is our future...I am terrified.