In an assignment based on Columbus’s Diaries, a student keeps writing things like, “Columbus is addressing the King and Queen of England,” “Columbus wants to send several of the indigenous people back to England,” Columbus wants people back in England to know. . .”
“Jason,” I write, “what does England have to do with any of this?”
“Isn’t England the country that sent Columbus’s expedition to the Indies?” Jason writes back.
And please don’t ask if I have discussed Spain and the Catholic King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabel, in the context of a course called HISPANIC CIVILIZATION. Please don’t ask because there has been too much aggravation already.
Clarissa's Blog 
So… I will write what will make cringe 95% of our colleagues… but this sort of aggravation is pretty much why I enjoy teaching languages more and more and literature or civilization courses less and less.
LikeLike
I actually know what you mean. Somehow, mistakes in the usage of the past tenses are never as aggravating as Columbus sailing from England and Muslim terrorists.
LikeLike
Exactly. The semester ended three weeks ago and it still pains me to meditate on why so many students in my upper-division course wrote in their final quiz that laziness caused the financial crisis in Spain.
LikeLike
Oh my God. I’m giving a lecture on Spain’s financial crisis in the local community center and I know I need to prepare for this kind of comments. But oh God.
LikeLike
No one cares about those spanish pirates!!
LikeLike
🙂 🙂
I’m now wondering whether the student in question confused Castile with Newcastle. 🙂
LikeLike
Ahem. I believe Columbus was an Italian pirate, Sir! Sailing for Spain, yes, but still an Italian.
(Of course, this more or less assumes that Columbus was not lying about his background, which is not at all a safe assumption. Maybe Columbus was a Aragonese converso, who knows…)
LikeLike
Actually, I do think there is evidence Columbus had Jewish origins. In his Diaries, he avoids mentioning the fact that thousands of Jews were embarking on the ships that were to take them into exile just as he was preparing his trip. He doesn’t even mention that this is the reason why he can barely find ships and crews for his voyage. When somebody is so studiously silent about something so obvious, it is interesting to know why.
LikeLike
Everything bad is caused by caucasions.
There’s no such thing as GUKURAHUNDI
http://unsanesafe.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/fifth-brigade-gukurahundi-atrocities.html
LikeLike