Nov 28 2008
The Thanksgiving Myth
Is it okay for teachers to perpetuate the Santa myth to innocent schoolchildren? (What parents do is more of their own business.) Considering that almost all children grow out of believing in Santa, no harm no foul, I suppose.
What about the myth of Thanksgiving? Wait, you didn’t know that the whole picnic-table pow-wow of Pilgrims and Indians was make-believe? I had an idea that it largely was, but learned more upon reading Thank Journalist, Rather Than Pilgrims, For Thanksgiving Feast.
Anne Blue Wills, assistant professor of religion at Davidson, explains that the current version of Thanksgiving was created by a journalistic crusader, and would have been unrecognizable to the Pilgrims it supposedly honors.
Hmm. Should schoolteachers continue to perpetuate the politically correct, multi-cultural, pro-tolerance (yet anti-fowl) message of Thanksgiving? My current thought is sure — providing they present it as cherished folklore and not historic fact.
