{"id":1680996,"date":"2022-10-10T06:34:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T10:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1680996"},"modified":"2022-10-10T06:36:41","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T10:36:41","slug":"columbus-day-celebration-or-washington-redskins-condemnation-va-school-replaces-history-with-equity-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/columbus-day-celebration-or-washington-redskins-condemnation-va-school-replaces-history-with-equity-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Day Celebration Or Washington Redskins Condemnation? VA School Replaces History With \u2018Equity\u2019 Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcolumbus-day-celebration-or-washington-redskins-condemnation-va-school-replaces-history-with-equity-lecture%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1680996&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. \u2014 Last Tuesday, teachers at Langley High School in northern Virginia, outside the nation\u2019s capital, readied students for Monday\u2019s Columbus Day federal holiday for 15th-century Italian explorer Christopher Columbus with a 17-slide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/599548941\/Langley-High-School-Columbus-Day-Lesson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PowerPoint presentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The only thing: It wasn\u2019t a lesson about Columbus \u2014 only mentioning him three times in a fleeting way \u2014 but rather it was a deep dive into \u201cequity and inclusion,\u201d \u201cIndigenous Rights &#038; Identity in America,\u201d \u201cAppropriate Terminology\u201d and the \u201cracial discrimination and\/or insensitivity\u201d that Native Americans face today and \u201cwhy that is commonplace in American society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Columbus is most certainly a controversial historical figure for travels that became a precursor for empire building, the lesson\u2019s intentional \u201cpivot,\u201d as the local school board calls it, underscores how it is that in the new racism of the \u201coppression matrix,\u201d the stories of historical figures and immigrant groups deemed politically incorrect are erased not much different than social justice warriors argue the narratives of people, like Native Americans, have been erased in the teaching of history.<\/p>\n<p>The solution is not to erase communities and people \u2014 like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niaf.org\/culture\/christopher-columbus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Italian American community<\/a> to whom Columbus is an important figure \u2014 but to provide fair and honest representations, which are <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2017\/10\/09\/7-books-read-kids-christopher-columbus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">very much available to youth<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Langley High School curriculum, obtained by Independent Women\u2019s Network and published here for the first time, was first taught at Langley High School after the local 12-0 Democratic members of the Fairfax County school board passed a motion on July 23, 2020, declaring: \u201cAs a community that values diversity, equity, inclusion, and history, Fairfax County Public Schools should pivot from acknowledging Columbus Day, and instead celebrate Indigenous People\u2019s Day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The resolution came as the school board renamed schools, launched a war on merit at local Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology targeting Asian students, and ignored the cries of parents to reopen schools. It also emerged amid a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2017\/10\/09\/indigenous-peoples-day-far-worse-columbus-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wider movement<\/a>, dating back over the past decade, to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p>The lesson at Langley reveals how the activist agenda has penetrated school curricula, in an effort <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/education\/archive\/2015\/10\/columbus-day-school-holiday\/409984\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launched a decade ago<\/a> with school districts, like San Francisco, and organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center. The lesson opens on slide three with the school\u2019s \u201cStatement of Acceptance,\u201d \u201crespecting each person\u2019s unique identity, perspective, and learning style.\u201d It quickly moves to a discussion about the words \u201cCelebration\u201d and \u201cHonor\/Honoring\u201d and, indeed, pivots immediately to the school board\u2019s 2020 manifesto to \u201cpivot from acknowledging\u201d Columbus Day.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"View Langley High School Columbus Day Lesson on Scribd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/599548941\/Langley-High-School-Columbus-Day-Lesson#from_embed\">Langley High School Columbu\u2026<\/a> by <a title=\"View The Federalist&#039;s profile on Scribd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/user\/274202084\/The-Federalist#from_embed\">The Federalist<\/a><\/p>\n<p>By slide eight, students watch a Ted-Ed video, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GD3dgiDreGc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cHistory v. Christopher Columbus,\u201d<\/a> of almost six minutes that casts Columbus as a \u201cruthless explorer,\u201d in a fictional trial against Columbus that concludes his narrative as a \u201chero\u201d must be understood today of him as a \u201cvillain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By slide 12, students are instructed: \u201cTake a moment to reflect independently on the ways in which Native Americans are subject to racial discrimination and\/or insensitivity and why that is commonplace in American society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The next moment, in slides 13 and 14, they are told to evaluate \u201cTeam Names and Mascots,\u201d with images of the abandoned mascots of the previously named Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, and Florida State University Seminoles. After watching a short <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2016\/12\/09\/us\/confronting-racist-objects.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York Times video<\/a>, \u201cConfronting Racist Objects,\u201d teachers asked them: \u201cIf a mascot or team name is clearly offensive to a living cultural group, should it continue to be used? If yes, why? If no, what can be done to bring about change?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By slide 15, students listened to a clip from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GIzYzz3rEZU&amp;t=16s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TedTalk <\/a>by photographer Matika Wilbur, promoting an initiative, Project 562, \u201cdedicated to photographing contemporary Native America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a nation, we don\u2019t have to erase history in order to teach it with accuracy and dignity for the people for whom the history means something important. That\u2019s a lesson our children should get from the narratives of Native Americans to the legacy of Christopher Columbus.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Asra Nomani is a senior contributor at The Federalist. A former Wall Street Journal reporter, Nomani writes a regular newsletter, <a href=\"https:\/\/asrainvestigates.substack.com\/\">Asra Investigates<\/a>, with breaking news and analysis on the frontlines of culture and politics. She is cofounder of the Coalition for TJ, a grassroots parent group, and the Pearl Project, an investigative reporting initiative.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. \u2014 Last Tuesday, teachers at Langley High School in northern Virginia, outside the nation\u2019s capital, readied students for Monday\u2019s Columbus Day federal holiday for 15th-century Italian explorer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":723,"featured_media":1680998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1680996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/723"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1680996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1680998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1680996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1680996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1680996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}