Columbus Day may pass some schools by

Columbus Day might slip by unnoticed in some area classrooms.

"I doubt we mess with that one," Jackson High School principal Rick McClard said.

"There are so many days of observance that the state legislature has imposed on schools it's hard to keep up with," said Dr. Mike Cowan, principal of Central High School in Cape Gir?ardeau.

"We're not doing anything schoolwide," said Bonnie Knowlan, principal of South Elementary in Jackson.

Between Patriot Day, Constitution Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, American Indian History Month and Presidents Day, teachers say it is hard to fit a curriculum around a particular date. As for Columbus Day, others find it difficult to celebrate a man they say may have been responsible for slavery.

The holiday, coming Monday, has sparked debate for decades, such as who was really first to the New World, whether Columbus' arrival was a "discovery or invasion," and whether Columbus was responsible for slavery or "ecocide."

Kyle Mabuce, a history teacher at Russell Hawkins Junior High in Jackson, says it is important for students to see both sides. In the past he has focused on the arrival and its impact rather than the "so-called discovery," he said.

Nicole Buehrle, a social studies teacher at Central Junior High School, said she thinks the school's textbooks do a good job of covering both sides, and that when she discussed Columbus earlier this year the students already knew about the controversy.

Administrators in Cape Girardeau and Jackson said that even if Columbus' arrival is not discussed explicitly Monday, it will be touched on at some point in the year. "I know we talk about it ... but we're not going to wait until a certain day to teach that," McClard said.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

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