As part of The National Research Council's How People Learn series, Bob Bain (now a professor of History Education at the University of Michigan's School of Education) described a classroom in which legitimate historical questions were at the center. Through this particular investigation, Bain's students learned about 15th-century Europe, Columbus's voyage, and the nature of history and historical accounts.

Rather than presenting a story of Columbus's journey to his students, Bain first elicited student ideas about the voyage and its context. "What do you know about Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492? What do you know about the people of Europe on the eve of Columbus's voyages?" After hearing students recall the standard flat-earth story about Columbus, Bain asked them how they knew what they supposedly knew. What evidence did they have for their Columbus stories?

How do you know what you know was the unifying problem across Bain's entire curriculum and this question forced students to confront the uncertain status of historical accounts. Students initially saw no difference between "history"and "the past" and believed there was a one-to-one correspondence between what happened in the past and the history book sitting on their desks.

Bain explained to his students that the past is never fully retrievable and our histories are accounts of that past rather than its mirrors. To make this distinction concrete for students, Bain used an organizer from the outset of his course, "history-as-event" and "history-as-account," (H(ev) and H(ac)). Columbus's voyage is history-as-event; the story we tell about it is history-as-account. This distinction, which students learned and used as touchstone, introduced the necessity of questioning and comparing different accounts of the past.

At the unit level, examining historical accounts meant posing questions about historical stories. Students believed they knew Columbus's story, but could not summon evidence to support it. Successive sets of documents helped them create a more accurate and complete story about Columbus and his time.

First Bain gave students a set of short accounts consistent with their ideas—in other words he set them up. Then he challenged those ideas with a picture of a classical statue of Atlas holding a round globe and an explanation written by Carl Sagan about how Eratosthenes determined the world's circumference in the 3rd century BCE. Given these sources, students wondered why Columbus got credit for the round earth idea.

The next round of accounts, selections from Daniel Boorstin and Stephen Jay Gould, helped students sharpen the historical problem that subsequently guided their study of 15th-century European exploration. Was there a great interruption in European geographic knowledge? Did people in 1492 generally believe in the flat earth? What historical accounts explain European exploration of the Americas? How have those accounts changed over time?

Bain used history-specific instructional strategies to support and assist students in analyzing and synthesizing historical accounts. Students confronted questions like, When was this written? What other sources support or contest this source? See this example of small, carefully structured, reading and discussion groups.

Through Bain's instruction, students learned that the "flat-earth" story was disseminated by 19th-century writers. Students learned that historical accounts change over time, and that it is the historian's task to sift through evidence and construct a legitimate story warranted by that evidence. At the same time, they learned important content about Columbus's voyage and the context of 15th-century Europe.

History is complicated and in our attempts to simplify it for young children we often change it, sometimes drastically. The story of Christopher Columbus is one example. For generations we have passed down myths about this man. We have taught children that he alone believed the world was round, when, in truth, many if not most people of his time understood that the world is round. We have taught that he discovered a new world. How could he discover it if people were already living there? We have also taught that he died not realizing what he had 'discovered.'

Elementary school teachers have a unique challenge: they teach all subjects rather than focus on one. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to be experts in everything.

One way to address this challenge is to allow students to recognize the questions. We don't have to have all the answers. In fact, when it comes to history it is not possible to know all the answers. Historians continue to study a wide range of primary sources and to disagree with previous assertions and with each other. It is important that students be allowed to wrestle with this uncertainty rather than to blindly accept what we state as fact. Even the youngest children can understand that adults are still learning, and can enjoy learning along with us.

If you are interested in tackling the complexities of Christopher Columbus, there are some great places to start. James Loewen's book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, is a good one and helpful for subjects far beyond Columbus. The Library of Congress has an exhibit entitled 1492: An Ongoing Voyage that includes interesting information on Columbus's coat of arms. An examination and discussion of his coat of arms can encompass quite a bit of information about the man and his achievements. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History's June 2007 History Now includes an article detailing the benefits and difficulties faced by both Columbus and his men and those people already living in the New World. If you are interested in the geography of Columbus's journeys or his logs, one individual has created a site which includes maps and information about the logs, navigation, the ships, and the crew.

One thing children can understand about Columbus and what he achieved was that he did so by "standing on the shoulders of giants" (a phrase from Isaac Newton). Columbus learned from those who came before him, about navigation, geography, and other cultures. Learning from others and building on that knowledge are strategies we should be helping our students develop. That is a worthy lesson to take from Columbus.

First, let's address mythology.

Contrary to what our grandparents—and perhaps parents—were taught, Christopher Columbus did not discover America in 1492. The land had been inhabited for centuries, and other explorers from Europe, Asia, and Africa had already landed here.

Neither were his voyages decisive straws breaking the back of the flat earth myth. Renaissance scholars inherited their surety about a rounded shape of the world from antiquity. Nineteenth-century author Washington Irving is responsible for ascribing that feat to Columbus in his 1828 publication, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, a fictional account represented as biographical.

So why is he one of only two individuals with his own national holiday in America? (Martin Luther King, Jr., of course, is the other). Why are cities, streets, and schools named after him, and why do memorials to him appear in every state in the country? Over the centuries, Italian Americans, Catholic and Protestant religious groups, American Indians, Hispanic Americans, government bodies, and more have seen Christopher Columbus as a symbol of unity and of opposition and of power. The umbrella of Columbus Day hosts this variety of political, religious, and ethnic groups who have mobilized to create celebrations and traditions that reinforce and legitimize their own perspectives and experiences.

Broadly speaking, the narrative of Columbus is one of unintended consequences. Columbus set out to find a western route to Asia. Instead, the timing of his four voyages opened the New World to Europeans during an era of growing imperialism and trade expansion.

The Internet Medieval Sourcebook from Fordham University published extracts from the journal of Christopher Columbus in his voyage of 1492. Their preface to this wall-to-wall, unadorned transcription summarizes the tension of conflicting interpretations. "On the one hand, [Columbus's voyage] is witness to the tremendous vitality and verve of late medieval and early modern Europe—which was on the verge of acquiring a world hegemony. On the other hand, the direct result of this and later voyages was the virtual extermination, by ill-treatment and disease, of the vast majority of the Native inhabitants, and the enormous growth of the transatlantic slave trade. It might not be fair to lay the blame at Columbus' feet, but since all sides treat him as a symbol, such questions cannot be avoided."

Annenberg Media approaches Columbus under the heading History and Memory, pointing out "Until recently, Columbus was revered as an intrepid explorer and civilizer in many parts of the world, not least the United States." Annenberg's primary and secondary materials demonstrate that increased scientific and archaeological evidence propelled an historiographic change. "Increasingly, Columbus became symbolic of an encounter that raised uncomfortable questions about conquest, colonialism, and destruction of peoples and habitats."

The History Channel gives a biographical overview of the life of Columbus and a summary of the controversies about Columbus. Their brief history of the holiday, however, leaves out important milestones such as the American Indian Movement's opposition to the holiday and the observance of alternative holidays established through legislation in some states. (Why activists are challenging Columbus Day in Colorado at History News Network discusses a 2006 protest in Denver, where Columbus Day began.)

Edsitement provides a particularly comprehensive lesson plan to teach about Christopher Columbus. What Was Columbus Thinking encourages students to read and talk about primary and secondary sources to discern the intentions behind the voyages of Columbus and the consequences in the lives of Native Americans and Europeans. Although billed as lesson plans for third through fifth grade, the primary sources (including a letter from Columbus and excerpts from his journal) seem a bit advanced for that age group; however, the lesson plan offers detailed guidance for document analysis.

The New York Times lesson plan, scaffolded for intermediate and high school students, uses the vehicle of Columbus Day protests to research "exploration and colonization from the point of view of a stakeholder of that nation."

A wealth of historical fiction, biography, and other nonfiction books for all age groups can be found in almost any bookstore or online. These two books look at the constructions behind different narratives about Columbus Day and how they came to be.

Discovering Christopher Columbus: How History is Invented by Kathy Pelta (grades 6-9) looks at how history is written through exploring primary and secondary sources about Christopher Columbus and discussing how they have been interpreted by different people at different times. Cultural Movements and Collective Memory: Christopher Columbus and the Rewriting of the National Origin Myth by Timothy Kubal (for adults) is a scholarly examination of how political, ethnic, and social constructions have appropriated, shaped, and adapted myths and realities of the Christopher Columbus narrative.

And here at the Clearinghouse, please visit these materials:

Answers to American Myths: Christopher Columbus in our past quizzes section clarifies misconceptions about the man, his explorations, and the holiday.

The website review Columbus and the Age of Discovery leads to a cumbersome, but useful, website for searching and accessing background materials on the man and the era.

The website review 1492: An Ongoing Voyage introduces exhibit-based materials from the Library of Congress.

In the Research Brief Learning to Think Historically: Columbus, Exploration, and the Idea of the Flat Earth, educator Bob Bain models a lesson encouraging students to challenge and examine inherited beliefs about history through exploring historical evidence.

How do you prepare for Columbus Day (October 10)? Is it a day off for your students, just another school day, or a teachable moment? You may be tempted to leave the holiday alone in the classroom. It can bring up issues related to colonization and colonialism, global contact, the definition of heroism, and the purpose of holidays—and that's just scratching the surface.

But it also presents an opportunity to discuss and explore these issues, and to ask what we know about history. How do we know about Columbus's voyages? About the man himself? About the lands and peoples he encountered? What primary sources passed this information down to the present day, and who created them? What information and viewpoints are missing? How have views of Columbus and his voyage changed over time? What materials record those changing views? When was Columbus Day first celebrated as a holiday?

We've gathered all of our resources on Columbus, Columbus Day, and his voyages in one Columbus Day Spotlight page to help you and your students answer these questions and more. Take a look at Learning Resources for primary and secondary sources, Teaching Resources for strategies from other teachers, and Quizzes to test your knowledge!

(And remember, the 9/11 and Constitution Day spotlights are still available. We'll continue to add new resources to all of our spotlights throughout the year, so bookmark them and check back frequently. Keep your eye out for new spotlights on Veterans Day and Thanksgiving next month!)