Actually, Stuka, Columbus discovering anything or not is not the point. The point is he was told the Earth was flat and he’d fall off the end of it if he tried to sail to the Indies in the wrong direction.
Despite the common knowledge of the day and all the “scientists” and religious fanatics telling him it was suicide, he had the testicular fortitude to say he was right and prove it by actively going out and doing it.
I don’t care if he liked to rape 3 year old boys with black skin and purple eyes. That’s not germane to the discussion! What matters is at least he was a scientist that was so sure of his convictions he was willing to put his own life in jeapordy to prove them true. That’s something our kids should look up too.
Being willing to stand up and speak without actually putting anything in jeapordy is no reason to revere someone. Who would give a rat’s pah-toot about Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein or Sir Isaac Newton if they only talked about what they thought was right and never acted on their beliefs? No one, that’s who. But because this guy was speaking out for someone’s rights (instead of actually fighting for them or getting elected and trying to get them legislation to protect them) he gets remembered? Sounds to me like this is a guy who had no real skills, so he swindled people into giving him money and power. In other words, a good scam artist, but not really someone I want my kids to revere as some hero.
If they need to revere someone who is not a politician nor a tactician, they can revere Paulo Freire who rose from poverty and re-engineered the school systems so that people of color and people of poverty could learn material in a manner they can understand instead of by rote memory. In other words, he is responsible for the severe reduction of the banking method of teaching.
Next time you think “Thank goodness I don’t have to memorize the national and state capitols of the world” remember Paulo Freire. Next time you are allowed to give your opinion on an exam essay and only back it up with your opinions, thank Paolo Freire. He focused on thinking skills, not memorization.
His birthday should be a day off. Not some frazzin upstart who incited riots and civil disobedience. (BTW, Paulo is not Caucasian, so don’t go off half cocked about some racist crap. I know that’s next, just disarming the fuse now.)