WTF?

My son conveys that this week in school he learned about an evil man named, "Christopher Columbus".  In my son's words, "He thought everyone was a savage and tried to kill everyone here".  Hmmmmmmm, now where do you go with this one?

I'm still at a loss why we have a Columbus Day, since I view this as the equivalent as going to my local grocery store and claiming that I found it.  Never mind that people are already there, I found it.  Moving on..

As you can imagine, I'm now trying to get a copy of the curriculum being taught to 3rd graders and more directly my son.  It's not going well, I've been sent to the school district website which has almost no information, but there is a nifty quote about social studies.  Granted I'm not exactly sure what the quote even means and who is NCSS.

On the HISD website:

"The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world." – NCSS

Link to HISD: http://www.hisd.org/portal/site/Curriculum/menuitem.11a9b8ee717ce1201606173fe041f76a/?vgnextoid=5f8568f585d14110VgnVCM10000028147fa6RCRD&vgnextfmt=default

How come my children's school definition of Social Studies does not match up very closely with the Webster's definition of it?

Merriam Webster's Definition:

: a part of a school or college curriculum concerned with the study of social relationships and the functioning of society and usually made up of courses in history, government, economics, civics, sociology, geography, and anthropology

This following last years fiasco of some "unknown" school administrator going into my kids classroom and telling them they are not say, draw, or reference in any manner the word Gun.  It's going to be a long school year.

WTF?