Materials for Secondary+ Educators
Please remember: truth-telling in history is often painful. Some of these materials can be controversial in nature. Parents, educators, and students are responsible for selecting those which are appropriate for their learning purposes.
Rethinking & Replacing Columbus: Lesson Plan Resources
These flexible learning experiences are designed for students in grades 7-12
and provide them with an opportunity to examine the controversy this “explorer” has raised in Syracuse and other places throughout the USA.
Students can compare how the history of Columbus is portrayed in their texts, research materials and on-line resources so they will be able to balance how this fits with the way they were taught, and compare it with emerging primary source information.
Ideally, this learning unit culminates with a one-hour ZOOM SPEAK OUT where students can share what they learned with other student participants. There are a variety of educational resources included that address: Doctrine of Discovery, The Controversy of Columbus, Island of the Blue Dolphin and Singing Down the Moon.
The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project focuses on telling a more accurate version of United States history. According to the NYT (outside link), “The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”
Due to paywalls with the NYT, a PDF of the project is linked here.
Additional resources that can be used at the educator’s discretion to support the 1619 Project:
Indian Boarding (Residential School) School Resources
Three Sioux students as they arrived at the Carlisle Indian School in 1883.
What was the Residential School System?
The residential school system was a collaboration between the Government of Canada (AND THE USA) and the mainstream churches to educate First Nations, indigenous children in an environment that removed them from the influences of their families and culture. The explicit goal was to “civilize and Christianize” the children and to teach them basic trades for the boys and domestic skills for the girls.
The same three Sioux students three years later at Carlisle Indian School, 1886
Residential Boarding Schools Resources
The system was based on a colonial, racist world view that Euro-Canadian and Euro-American society was superior and First Nations, Indigenous people and their cultures were inferior. In its Final Report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called the Indian Residential School system “cultural genocide.” The United States should do the same.
Indian Boarding Schools by State* Please note- some are still operational.