"He didn't discover anything!"

With my three youngest children now living for most of each month in New Mexico, I have been having long conversations with each of them, trying to understand what they are learning in school, and what experiences they are having. Yesterday Sara told me she learned all about Christopher Columbus in her second grade class.

"Christopher Columbus thought it was America, but it was the Indies. He found some gold, so he chopped off the Indians' hands and gave the gold to the King and Queen. Then he went back a second time and again he chopped off the Indians' hands and this time he put them in prison, too! He found a piece of wood and floated to land, then he and his brother ran a map shop together. He didn't discover anything. Everybody already knew the Earth is round!"

You can rest assured that our children are being taught all the politically correct versions of history. Tonight Jon told me that last year at his school here in Colorado he learned all about Muslims but was not taught anything about Islam or jihad. Not one word about Islamists wanting to kill Jews or persecute Christians!

Update: Tonight (October 17, 2011) I spoke with Sara. She told me she finally gave her presentation to the 2nd grade class today on her "investigation" into the adventures of Christopher Columbus. She said he actually did discover America, but he thought it was the Indies, which Sara thinks is somewhere in South America. "That is why Indians are called Indians," she said.