The "Founder of this Country"

Who was Christopher Columbus to me? He was the founder of this country, he was a hero, a nice man that made this country possible for all of us. This is all a lie. I don't understand why schools continue to teach student's lies and if they don't want to say the truth because it can be inappropriate for student's to know, then don't teach anything about it at all. During class we discussed Christopher Columbus and I found out he was actually racist and cruel because he would cut off children's hands. If it was up to me as a future teacher I wouldn't even teach this topic but it isn't. What I can do is teach around it and what that means is finding other reliable resources that can make this topic more meaningful for my student's, teach what really is important about Christopher Columbus. I can change this process for my student's such as  I can ask who's story is missing from these traditional perspectives, we can read books and give them the chance to investigate and become detectives. Then let the students tell the story from their own perspective.