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A Better Way to Teach Kids about Thanksgiving
教孩子们了解感恩节 还有更好的办法
If you learned about Thanksgiving in an American elementary school,
如果你是从美国的小学里了解到感恩节的，
chances are you learned that the holiday commemorates how the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Mass., fresh off the Mayflower,
那你很有可能了解到的是，乘坐五月花号的清教徒刚一抵达马萨诸塞州的普利茅斯，
celebrated the harvest by enjoying a potluck-style dinner with their friendly Indian neighbors.
便与当地好客的印第安友邻共进家常便饭，庆祝丰收，感恩节纪念的便是此段佳话。
But while that story is inspired by a real 1621 meal,
尽管该故事灵感来源于1621年真实的一餐，
it reflects neither the 17th century truth nor the 21st century understanding of it.
但故事反映的既不是17世纪的史实，也非21世纪的现代人对这一节日的理解。
American public memory of Thanksgiving comes from the 19th century—and it can sometimes seem stuck there.
美国民众的感恩节记忆源于19世纪——偶尔似乎仍停留在那段时间。
An elementary school in Mississippi, for example,
例如，密西西比州一所小学
drew backlash for a Nov.15 tweet that included photos of kids dressed up as Native Americans,
便因11月15日的一条推文引发了强烈的抗议，推文的配图是孩子们打扮成印第安人，
with feather headbands and vests made of shopping bags.
戴着羽毛头饰，穿着购物袋做的背心的照片。
Images like those have deep roots in American education,
这样的印第安人形象早已深入美国的教育体系，
dating back to the decades after Abraham Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving in 1863.
甚至可追溯到1863年亚伯拉罕·林肯宣布感恩节为美国的法定节假日的几十年后。
The Puritan separatists were rebranded "Pilgrims,"
“分离派”清教徒被冠上了"朝圣者"之名，
and an 1889 novel that described their Thanksgiving as an outdoor feast became a best seller.
1889年面世的那部将感恩节描绘成了一场户外盛宴的小说则成了畅销书。
The growing ad industry helped spread popular images of the tale, not least to classrooms.
不断壮大的广告业也帮助传播了这一故事所塑造的广受欢迎的感恩节形象，尤其是在教室的传播。
Drawing in part on depictions of Native Americans in early westerns, teachers developed skits to make the sentimental stories stick.
老师们又借鉴早期西部片对印第安人的描绘发明了滑稽短剧，使得这些充满柔情的故事更加经久不衰。
By the 1920s, Thanksgiving was the most talked-about holiday in U.S. classrooms.
到上世纪20年代，感恩节便已成为美国课堂上谈论最多的节日。
The parts that made the colonists look bad were left out.
那些有损殖民者形象的部分则被删减掉了。
This was no coincidence.
这并非巧合。
A wave of immigration and urbanization around the turn of the 20th century led to a surge of both nativism and nostalgia;
20世纪之交的移民浪潮和城市化浪潮激起了一波浓厚的本土主义情怀与怀旧情绪；
one 1887 cartoon compared noble-looking Pilgrims confidently striding off the Mayflower with the huddled masses of the day.
1887年的一幅漫画就将打扮高贵，昂首阔步走下“五月花”号的朝圣者与当天挤成一团的人群做了对照。
In the 1940s and '50s, as the Cold War drove another wave of concern about outsiders, imagery of Pilgrims again exploded.
到了20世纪40，50年代，冷战再次引发了人们对外来者的担忧，朝圣者这一意象再次被推翻。
In some schools, Thanksgiving became one of the only times Native Americans were discussed,
部分学校，感恩节甚至成了为数不多的几个讨论印第安人的契机之一，
often leaving students with a mistaken, and damaging, impression.
给学生留下的往往还是错误、有害的印象。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
