Alan Marcus, a professor of education at the University of Connecticut, says in his state, there have been calls to remove statues of Christopher Columbus, in connection to the explorer’s violent mistreatment of Native Americans. Marcus said monuments can become “expired” as society’s values shift.

“What’s acceptable in one time period might not be acceptable in a different time period,” Marcus explained. These “expired monuments” can be repurposed to instead teach about “how we frame certain histories and whose perspective we learn about and whose perspective is left out.”

Historical monuments are intended to be timeless, but almost all have an expiration date. As society’s values shift, the legitimacy of monuments can and often does erode,” say Alan Marcus, a professor of curriculum and instruction at the Neag School, and Walter Woodward, an associate professor of history at UConn. “This is because monuments – whether statues, memorials or obelisks – reveal the values of the time in which they were created and advance the agendas of their creators.”

“Like monuments, mascots are not just symbols of a dark past, but barriers to a more just future. If schools and communities are to reckon with the past and present of systemic racism, and move toward a future of human rights, both monuments and mascots must fall,” says Glenn Mitoma, an assistant professor of human rights and curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut, and director of UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.