Zinn Education Project News

The Seattle City Council adopted a resolution to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day,
not Columbus Day. Photo: Flickr/Vanessa.

Did

you see the good news out of Seattle this past week? First the school board, then the city council, voted to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day. It's a sign that more and more people want to learn----and teach----the truth about our history. These actions follow on the heels of the spirited protests in Jefferson County, Colorado, where a right wing majority on the school board sought to ensure that curriculum materials "promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights."

This is a good time of year to remember that Columbus did not "respect individual rights." He came seeking gold. And to get it, he enslaved and brutalized the Taíno people of the Caribbean. Indigenous people resisted and that resistance continues to this day.

The Zinn Education Project features abundant teaching resources to expose students to a much fuller truth than they will get in most children's biographies or in the corporate textbooks. Read the first chapter of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, and follow that with materials from Rethinking Columbus, including "The People vs. Columbus, et al." trial role play, and other articles included in our If We Knew Our History column.

Rethinking Columbus: What better way to honor Indigenous Peoples' Day?

Related Resources
	It's Columbus Day...Time to Break the Silence Article. By Bill Bigelow. 2012. The attack on Mexican American Studies and Rethinking Columbus shares a common root: the attempt to silence stories that unsettle today's unequal power arrangements.		An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States NEW Book - Non-fiction. By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Four hundred years of Native American history from a bottom-up perspective.

Curriculum Change to Downplay 'Social Strife' Is Passed

Photo: Channel 8-KPAX, Colorado/CNN.

"Get Koch Industries Out Of Our Schools" and "We Have The Right To Know Our Past!" are two of the chants by students, teachers, and parents in Jefferson County, Colorado.

As reported in "School board defies protest of hundreds to pass review of US history curriculum" by Nicky Woolf in The Guardian, "More than 400 people gathered outside the Jefferson County school board building seemed hopeful." However, the school board "passes conservative plan." Continue reading.

Colorado teachers and students: Let us know what support you need from Zinn Education Project teachers around the country.

Available This Fall	Excerpt at HowardZinn.org
10th Anniversary Edition of Voices of a People's History of the United States Paralleling Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, this new edition features new voices including Chelsea Manning, Naomi Klein, the Dream Defenders, the undocumented youth movement, the day laborers movement, and Glenn Greenwald. Read more.	Columbus and the Lens of History Excerpt from A People's History of the United States. By Howard Zinn. Zinn describes why he tells the story of Columbus's arrival "from the viewpoint of the Arawaks" and "the inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in history." Read at HowardZinn.org.
Performances of Voices of a People's History in November To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Voices of a People's History, two events are scheduled. Los Angeles, Nov. 13 at 7:30 pm The Japanese American Cultural and Community Center Ticket information coming soon! Stay tuned. New York, Nov. 21 at 7 pm ---- FREE EVENT The New School's John L. Tishman Auditorium The tickets are free but registration is required at Eventbrite.

Upcoming Educator Conferences
	Oct. 11 \| San Francisco Teachers 4 Social Justice - Bay Area "The Roots of Resistance" Visit the Rethinking Schools table
	Oct. 18 \| Portland, Ore. Northwest Teaching for Social Justice "Rethinking Our Classrooms, Organizing for Better Schools" Visit the Rethinking Schools table Keynote Speaker: Enid Lee, co-editor of Beyond Heroes and Holidays, published by Teaching for Change
	Nov. 5-9 \| Tucson, Ariz. "Dismantling Fronteras through Multicultural Education: Con Comunidad, Cariño y Coraje" National Association for Multicultural Education Visit the Rethinking Schools booth
	Nov. 22 \| Chicago Teachers for Social Justice Curriculum Fair Visit the Rethinking Schools table
	Nov. 21-23 \| Boston National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference Visit the Zinn Education Project booths
_____________________________________________________________________ Headed to a workshop or conference? Take the Zinn Education Project with you! Help spread the word by distributing bookmarks at conferences or sharing sample booklets at your next workshop. Request copies here.

Champion the Right to Teach and Learn People's History
Ensure everyone has access to learning people's history. For $25, we can reach ten more teachers with resources for teaching people's history. Please DONATE today. Yes, I support teaching people's history!

	The goal of the Zinn Education Project is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history. www.zinnedproject.org

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