How history is taught in our public schools is a serious matter. As a child develops into an adult, the ability to hold rational public discourse using factual references as supporting data becomes an important skill. The ability to sort out truth from disinformation is a powerful asset, but children cannot develop that ability when their public school history curriculum is riddled with inaccuracy and outright omission. The result is that many children do not learn how to properly find and assess what is fact.

In the case of Columbus, we see the inability of people to fully interpret the history of the famous 15^th century explorer, or understand the meaning of the Federal holiday that honors his seafaring skills. Some of the oversimplified claims that are generally accepted as fact actually contradict the known evidence.