Christopher Columbus

Part of being a classical school means that we give kids the information they need to then be able to form ideas and opinions of their own. To learn about Christopher Columbus, we read stories about him and discussed different opinions of him out there. The kids then had to come up with their own ideas as to whether they thought he was a "good guy" or "bad guy". Here were their thoughts:
Miranda- bad guy because he stole gold and he was mean to the Indians who helped him
Kelsey- bad guy because he stole land and gold and wasn't nice to the Indians
Hayden- good guy because he discovered our land and proved that the world was round
Grace- bad guy because he took Indians land and he was mean to the Indians and said "I am going to take your gold"
Isabel- bad guy because he wanted to take gold and things that did not belong to him
Jimmy- bad guy because he spread bad diseases to the Indians
Victor- bad guy because he took the Indians land and was mean to him
Xander- good guy because he proved the earth was round and he never gave up
Ari- bad guy because really there are a million things he did wrong
Seth- bad guy because he took people and things that did not belong to him. He might have been good once but turned bad when he didn't get what he wanted
Julian- good guy
James- bad guy because he stole gold
Luke- bad guy because he gave the Indians bad diseases and took their land
Austin- bad guy because he warred against the Indians and killed them
Megan- bad guy because he said "you have to come with us" to the Indians but they did not want to
Katie- good guy because he was nice to some people
Isabella- bad guy because he stole Indians land
Jordan- good guy at first but then turned bad
Ryan-bad guy because he stole gold from the Indians
Eli- good guys because he proved the world was round
Brandon- bad guy because he was mean to others
Kendall- bad guy because he gave diseases to the Indians