Columbus Day

I remember learning about how Christopher Columbus was a great man that discovered America. I remember reapeting "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". We colored pictures of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria and acted out little skits in the class . Now that I am older, I think about "Why do we celebrate this day?" Colunbus first of all discovered the island of Hispaniola. Acccording to Samuel Eliot Morison, the Harvard historian, the author of a multivolume biography and himself retraced Columbus's journey, tells us of the horrible man Columbus truley was. In his book Christopher Columbus, Mariner, he tells about the enslavement and the killing: "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide." In this book Morison refuses to lie about Columbus. He talks about his mass murders and describes with the harshest words: genocide. In Howard Zinn's book "A Peoples History of the United States," he says, "My point is not that we must, in telling history, accuse, judge, condemn Columbus in absentia. It is to late for that; it would be useless scholarly exercise in morality. But the easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress (Hiroshima and Vietnam, to save Western Civilization; Kronstadt and Hungry, to save socialism; nuclear proliferation, to save us all)-that is still with us." Zinn continues to say," One reason these atrocities are still with us is that we have learned to bury them in a mass of other facts, and give them exactly the same proportion of attention that teachers and writers often give them in the most respectable of classrooms and textbooks."
So my friends, now that you are all becoming teachers, remember to think of this when you need to teach about Columbus. In my opinion, maybe you should do your own research before celebrating a lie and celebrating a man who committed genocide.

Link: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

discovered(verb) to see, find or learn of for the first time.
biography (noun) a person's life written by another
retraced (verb) to go back over; to trace back to a source
genocide (noun) the killing of a whole race of people
atrocities (noun) a cruel act
deplorable (adjective) shcking; extremely bad

Unscramble each of the clue words.

PIRHAYBOG __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

CENDOEGI __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

BALPDROEEL __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

CERADETR __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

ASRECTIITO __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

SECDOIREDV __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

*grammer point: A verb tells about a type of action, such as to fly or to wish. It can also be used to describe a state of existence, such as to live.
Can you name some verbs from the paragraph above?