The Columbus Day Debate returns every autumn, bringing conflict and conversation about the nature of the holiday and the man behind it.

In 2021, the New York City Department of Education changed the holiday’s name to Indigenous Peoples Day/ Italian Heritage Day, and in 2022, the Haldane School District followed suit. But how much do Haldane students know about the holiday or the sudden name change?

According to the AP World History teacher at Haldane, Michelle Cordaro, “[Columbus] didn’t come from a well off family; he had to work his way up.” Born in 1451 as the son of a lower-class weaver family, Columbus didn’t have the most promising start to life. So, how did he get the funding to sail halfway across the world? Ms. Cordaro says that “[Columbus] was a frequent member of the [Spanish] court. When the monarch would hold court, sometimes it was a closed audience, and sometimes it was an open audience, and he just kept on asking, and eventually they relented.”

And so, on Aug. 3, 1492, Columbus set out with his fleet of ships into the vast Atlantic Ocean. After 5 weeks, Columbus landed in what is now the Bahamas, occupied by the Indigenous Taino people. Shortly after their interaction with Columbus’s fleet, disease and forced slave labor all took a devastating toll on the Taino. Environmental damage caused by the introduction of foreign species onto the island resulted in the collapse of local ecosystems, contributing to widespread famine and brutal ecocide. By the early 16th century, 85% of this once-flourishing population died.

Can we solely blame Columbus for all these negative outcomes? It’s a difficult question.

The writings of scholar Bartolomé de las Casas praised Columbus for his piety and navigational skills while condemning him for his cruel actions as governor of Hispaniola (The island he landed on). While we certainly can’t say that Columbus could have predicted the effect that his expedition would have caused throughout the world, it’s fair to say that while he may have been a wise navigator and a charismatic persuader, he didn’t display the prudency and responsibility modern-day students expect from an explorer and leader. Ms. Cordaro weighed in: “Though his impact was negative on many groups in the new world, there’s not one plane of Columbus. He’s a complex individual who should be studied and looked into.”

How have we, as Haldane students, come to know about the holiday itself and the history behind it? Many students reference elementary school as their first exposure to Columbus. Sophomore Hazel Berkley referenced the classic kindergarten song “Columbus Sailed The Ocean Blue” as her earliest introduction. However, according to Berkley, most of her knowledge about the tragic history behind the holiday understandably came from middle school rather than elementary school. “In elementary school, [Columbus] was praised a lot, but as we progressed to middle school, we learned more about some of the terrible things he did,” she said. According to Berkley, Haldane Seventh Grade students in Kelli Annesi’s Social Studies classroom learn a lot about colonization and touch upon the greedy acts of Columbus. Another student, freshman Scout Thakur deBeer, referenced the Internet as a major source of her knowledge, particularly online jokes that she finds informative and comedic. When asked what she thought of the recent name change in New York City, she said “I’m all for it, but I didn’t know it got changed until today!” This seems to be the overwhelming sentiment of most of the Haldane students I talked to. Students seem to be unaware of the 2021 New York City change and the 2022 Haldane School District change.