Leo and Layla wonder why their teachers don’t want them to celebrate Columbus Day anymore and only want to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day/Native American Day. They say they’ve heard mixed things about Columbus’s character.
The kids “travel back in time” using a cell phone to speak to Columbus.
Leo and Layla meet Columbus on his ship as he is sailing back to Spain, and he explains his backstory.
Leo says he’s heard at school that Columbus spoiled paradise and brought slavery and murder to peaceful people.
Columbus says he met tribes that were highly intelligent and others that were “vicious, warring cannibals.”
Leo and Layla ask Columbus about slavery.
Columbus says that slavery is “as old as time.” Columbus also adds that “being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? I don’t see the problem.”
Leo and Layla push back about slavery no longer being allowed in the 21st century.
Columbus tells the kids it’s not fair to judge him by the same standards as the future. He makes comparisons to Ancient Greeks and says that while he doesn’t agree with everything in their society, their achievements are not ignored.
Columbus says that no one is perfect, except for his lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
Leo and Layla travel back home and recap what they learned.