US History (Wednesday, January 11, 7th period)

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

Josh looked up from a map of Montana when his history class filed in.

"Good to see you all again. None of you have run away in terror yet which means I'm obviously not doing my job all that well." He grinned. "Kidding. Mostly."

He pulled out his history textbook. "Today we start at the beginning. Well, not quite the 'In the beginning' Genesis stuff, but North America before Columbus.

He passed out a copy of a poem. "This is a good reminder that there are two sides--at least two sides--to every story we've been told."

He ran a hand through his hair. "While it has been proven that others--notably the Vikings, and theories expanding the list to include the possibility of the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Polynesians, various African tribes, and even the Greeks and Romans--had discovered a land mass West of Europe and East of Asia, the guy that really made that land mass something the rest of the world cared about was Christopher Columbus. Heck, other than Jesus, he's the only person in history to have an epoch of history named after him--pre- and post-Columbian civilization."

Josh looked down at his notes, then smacked at the map hanging down over the chalkboard. "Columbus, as most of you know, set out from Spain determined to find a path to China that didn't include going past Turkey, Italy and the fines they were imposing on trade." He snickered. "Of course he couldn't do math and underestimated how big the Earth was by about 10,000 miles. The Portuguese, who could do math, had turned his expedition down flat." He looked up. "No intellectual in Europe, by the way, believed the Earth was flat at this point. So if you'd learned that in elementary school, unlearn it right now.

"So Columbus headed out in his three slightly leaky boats--the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, heading West towards China, which was known as Cathay at the time. The expedition spotted land, in the form of what is now known as the Bahamas, 33 days later. Columbus thought they have found the Indies because, again, he can't do math. He called the people he met Indians, who have absolutely no idea what he's talking about. Partially because he's speaking to them in Spanish and Arabic, which they don't understand.

"First contact goes great as far as Columbus is concerned. The tribe is friendly--possibly because of the swords Columbus and his gang are wielding--and Columbus, after taking a few of the members back with him as trophies, along with as much gold and jewelry as he can find--heads back to Spain and is greeted as a hero."

"For the Arawak, it was a disaster. Columbus will return and turn many of them into slaves. Pretty soon all of the Arawak-speaking-tribes were dead--killed by European weapons, slavery, or diseases like smallpox and measles that the people in North America had no immunity to."

Josh stopped reading.

"Today's discussion. In your time at Fandom High, however short it might have been, you've met someone who isn't from your culture, your dimension, or your, um, planet. Since we've obviously not tried to kill each other or take each other hostage, we're a step ahead of Columbus. Pair up and talk about your initial 'first contact' with someone different than yourself and use what you did to come up with something that Columbus should've done better."

He pointed at the book. "And we're not going to overlook the natives who were here first. Your homework assignment is to pick a tribe--either from the North like one of the Inuit tribes, the Northwest like the Chinook, the Kwakiutl or the Spokane, the Southwest like the Apache, the Pueblo or the Hopi, the Plains like the Sioux, the Crow, or the Arapaho, the Midwestern moundbuilders like the ones who used to live in Cahokia, or the Eastern tribes like the Powhatan, the Delaware or the Iroquois League, which was made up of the Huron, Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chickasaw peoples." He pointed at his inbox. That will be due in the homework thread my box before next class. A hundred words snagged from the almighty Wikipedia will be great.

"Next week we learn about what happened after Columbus opened his big mouth and the rest of the world decided they needed the gold that was in the Americas."

Comments

Discussion

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

You could do it better than Columbus. Use how you've adjusted to new people and figure out how Columbus could've discovered the New World without destorying an entire population.

Re: Discussion

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Cally looks around for someone to pair up with.

Re: Discussion

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica waves.

"Hey, Cally, want to pair up?"

Re: Discussion

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"Sure." Cally smiles. "Haven't talked in a loooong while, so might as well start with an assignment, huh?"

Re: Discussion

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Why not?" Veronica asks with a grin. "How've you been?"

Re: Discussion

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

"Been doing great. About the only really bad thing that's happened was the pageant thingy, which, to be honest, was kinda fun, in retrospect." Cally nods. "How about you?"

Re: Discussion

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"I enjoyed the pageant," Veronica tells her. "But, aside from getting bitten by a gremlin and almost killed by a demon, things have been good."

Re: Discussion

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair's looking for a partner....

Re: Discussion

[absolutesnark]

Piper smiles at the new student. "Hi. Want to pair up?"

Re: Discussion

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

Blair bounces and grins. "I'd love to!, I'm Blair, freshman." He sticks out his hand in greeting. "You?"

Re: Discussion

[absolutesnark]

"I'm Piper, senior," Piper said. "So, how have you been adjusting to Fandom High?"

Re: Discussion

[lovechildblair.livejournal.com]

"Great! I'm loving it so far!" Blair bounced and a bit of banana scent wafted around. "I did meet the librarian monkey today who's not a monkey and if you call him one, he'll throw things at you."

Re: Discussion

[absolutesnark]

"The new librarian is a monkey?" Piper shrugged. "That's actually not the strangest thing I've heard. I've dealt with some weird stuff here. Have you, yet? Besides the monkey librarian?"

Re: Discussion

[miss-monochrome.livejournal.com]

Chiana looks around for somebody to pair up with.

Re: Discussion

[wraithbaitjohn.livejournal.com]

"Yo Chi... want to pair up with a native? Not native like he means... but you know more native than you?" He gives her a winning grin.

Re: Discussion

[miss-monochrome.livejournal.com]

"Hm, I dunno Shep. Seems like being around you lately leads to nakedness and detention. ...Then again," she smirks, "sure, I'll be your partner."

Re: Discussion

[wraithbaitjohn.livejournal.com]

"Uh... not in class. No thanks. And for the record, neither the nakedness nor the detention were my idea." He rolls his eyes at her.

"So... first time you met someone not from... whereever you're from? How did you not screw it up?"

Re: Discussion

[miss-monochrome.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm gonna assume he means the first time we met somebody here, since well, let's just say that I usually manage to screw it up by gettin' on so well with the natives in the first place, if you know what I mean," she says, grinning.

"So, for meeting some being here, I can say I did better than this Columbus guy by not, you know, enslaving anybody. Er... well, except for Rory, but that was just for the Ethics assignment! But, um, other than that, I think I managed to not screw up too badly because I had some idea of the kinda people I would be dealing with. And didn't assume it was India, or wherever. You?"

Re: Discussion

[mycanonhatesme]

Chloe finishes scribbling in her notebook and looks around for someone to pair up with.

Re: Discussion

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana smiles at Chloe. "Hey, haven't seen you around for a while. Want to pair up?"


[OOC: I know I'm really late, so not to worry if you're busy.]

Re: Discussion

[sooo_cute]

"Um. I saw weird people and hid in my room," Quinn says. "But I didn't destroy a population. See, normally, when people aren't weird, you make friends. You say 'hi, what's up,' but really only if they look cute and popular, and you ignore the others."

She nods.

Re: Discussion

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

Jake blinked slowly at her. "...That's a valid approach to life, I suppose. Do you go to parties a lot?"

Re: Discussion

[sooo_cute]

"I haven't here, but all the time back home," Quinn nods. "I'm invited to all of them, it would be rude not to."

Re: Discussion

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

"True, it would. They might not invite you again," Jake pointed out, happily ignoring the assignment. "And, I mean, think of all the stuff you'd miss! Who hooked up with who, who got into a fight, who got drunk and did the macarena..."

Re: Discussion

[sooo_cute]

"Exactly! You miss one party and all of a sudden you look too cool for them. Which, you might be, but you don't want to look it. You want to be cool, but not too cool."