According to the 'new' history to be taught in Florida, it may be African Americans who owe white America reparations, given the 'benefits' that slavery conferred upon them.
The Florida State Board of Education’s new standards includes controversial language about how “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” according to a 216-page document about the state’s 2023 standards in social studies, posted by the Florida Department of Education.
I can't help but wonder if working endless days under a hot sun with no pay might have been one of those skills. Or perhaps the liberal application of the lash was an extended character-building exercise meted out generously by selfless plantation masters? Revisionist history offers a myriad of possibilities.
And lest we forget, the race massacres were apparently a two-way street:
Other language that has drawn the ire of some educators and education advocates includes teaching about how Black people were also perpetrators of violence during race massacres.
That language says, “Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre.”
The Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers’ union representing about 150,000 teachers, called the new standards “a disservice to Florida’s students and are a big step backwardfor a state that has required teaching African American history since 1994.”
The union said it is troubling that at the high school level, the standards conflate the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, when at least 30 African Americans were killed for attempting to vote, with “acts of violence perpetrated by African Americans.” And in middle school, the standards require students be taught slavery was beneficial to African Americans because it helped them develop skills, the union said.
Ron DeSantis, the architect of these changes that prove everything Orwell warned us about, is frequently quoted as saying "Florida is where woke goes to die." Anyone with even a modicum of critical intelligence, I'm certain, would prefer to be 'woke' rather than imprisoned in a dystopian dreamscape fueled by the distortions of Florida's Ministry of Truth.
UPDATE: Can Ron DeSantis explain how being enslaved was beneficial to Celia?
In 1850, a fourteen-year-old girl in Missouri named Celia was purchased by enslaver, Robert Newsom.
Over the course of five years, he repeatedly raped her.
On June 23, 1855 while pregnant with her second child, Celia defended herself against more abuse, resulting in the death of her enslaver and rapist.
During Celia’s trial, Newsom’s grandson William Powell testified.
Powell testified that Celia had complained that Newsom repeatedly demanded sex and that she had approached other Newsom family members in a vain attempt to stop the rapes. Powell also admitted that Celia told him that her attack on Newsom came from desperation and that she only intended to injure, not kill.
Celia was found guilty.
An appeal was filed.
The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately ruled against her appeal.
On December 21, 1855 at 2:30 P.M., the state of Missouri murdered Celia on the gallows.
Are we going to teach children this history?
Or are we going to continue to whitewash history because it makes some people uncomfortable?
While I have been retired from teaching for quite a number of years, every so often I am reminded of the often counter-productive influence that parents can exert over the learning experience. I'll get to what prompted my latest revisitation of the past in a moment, but first, a couple of contextual memories.
One year, when teaching Grade Nine, I was given a note from a parent who objected to her child being taught about Greek myths. They were, apparently, counter to their religion, the parent apparently under the misapprehension that I was somehow promoting false gods. I offered an alternative course of study for the student while the rest of the class pursued the subject, but I never heard another word from the parent, so all proceeded as before.
Another time, a parent phoned me objecting to his daughter reading Flowers for Algernon, which contained a very, very circumspect allusion to sexual activity. This was part of an independent study of novels which came with a very extensive reading list. The parent informed me that such a book should not be made available to any student, and I told him that while he was well within his parental rights to exercise influence over what his daughter read, no one had the right to dictate what others could or could read. End of discussion, and his daughter (an excellent student, by the way) chose another book.
In the intervening years, thanks to feckless administrators who choose political expediency over principles, Canadian parents have gained much more power over what schools teach, but the problem seems to be particularly acute in backward states such as Florida, where the governor (and likely presidential nominee aspirant) Ron DeSantis has made it his mission to restrict the things students there can learn, all under the figleaf of combatting 'the woke agenda.' As he said last year after his second gubernatorial victory, "Florida is where woke goes to die."
It apparently also is the place where art appreciation is an endangered course of study, given its 'wokeness'.
Ah, the Renaissance. A period that saw the growth of intellectual reason, the flowering of art and culture, and a lot of very hardcore pornography.
Such is the opinion of aggrieved parents of kids at Tallahassee classical school in Florida, anyway. Their sixth-graders (who are aged around 11-12) were shown a picture of Michelangelo’s sculpture of David during a Renaissance art class. Fairly normal, one might think – particularly for a school that advertises itself as providing a classical education. Nope: a firing offence. One parent called the sculpture “pornographic” and so much outrage ensued that the principal of the school, Hope Carrasquilla, was forced out.
The 'sin' of Ms. Carrasquilla and her staff, apparently, was a failure to send out a parental letter 'warning' that their kids were about to be exposed to an exposed statue, which set off three parents:
According to Slate, who interviewed Barney Bishop III, the school board chair responsible for forcing Carrasquilla out of her job, three parents were behind the bulk of the David-related outrage. Three parents. Three! But the number of angry parents doesn’t matter, because, according to Bishop, parents are always right. “Parental rights are supreme, and that means protecting the interests of all parents, whether it’s one, 10, 20 or 50,” Bishop said to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Shockingly, the board chair has little confidence in teachers' professional judgement:
“The rights of parents, that trumps the rights of kids,” he told Slate. “Teachers are the experts? Teachers have all the knowledge? Are you kidding me? I know lots of teachers that are very good, but to suggest they are the authorities, you’re on better drugs than me.”
While most of the world will likely be amused by the retrograde thinking in Florida, its implications are much wider, as I have recently posted about. The threat to critical thinking is very real:
it’s just the latest example of a terrifying lurch towards censorship and authoritarianism in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis, who has been described as the “Education Governor” is on a censorship crusade and his first major battleground has been schools. DeSantis wants to completely reshape K-12 and higher education in the state and, so far, he’s been getting his way. Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature has already passed a number of laws limiting how gender, sexuality and race can be taught. Now the state is trying to limit sex education with a draft law that would ban schools teaching about menstrual cycles before the sixth grade. Give it a few years and showing a child a picture of Michelangelo’s David will be a criminal offence, punishable by firing squad.
Knowledge is power. The growing authoritarian impulse in the United States in general, and Florida in particular, makes it clear that education has become weaponized to maximize the chances that those in power stay in power, while the disenfranchised remain where they have always been: at the bottom of the social and political hierarchy.
Being on the right side of history is a popular desire these days, and many opportunities are afforded by Black History Month. It offers progressives and companies the chance to stand with the Black community in expressing pride in their multitude of achievements that many people are unaware of. If you doubt those achievements, a quick online search will enlighten you.
Unfortunately, many companies citing solidarity with Black people and an abhorrence of racism do so as a kind of corporate virtue-signaling, while their true character is to be found elsewhere.
Such is the case in Ron DeSantis's Florida, where the governor's corporate contributors reveal a startling hypocrisy. And that hypocrisy envelops many national brands, all quite recognizable.
Amazon, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Comcast, DoorDash, General Motors and Walmart have all made public statements in celebration of Black History Month. Google posted online on 1 February: “Learn how Google is recognizing and celebrating Black voices, joy and success this Black History Month.”
But the Center for Political Accountability found that each of these companies donated significant sums of money to political groups that prominently supported DeSantis.
Another egregious offender, at least before relations with DeSantis went south, is Disney.
... early in the election cycle ... Disney contributed $50,000 to his re-election campaign and $125,000 to the Republican party of Florida, which supported his campaign and inauguration.
The list goes on, and you need only read the Guardian article to get more names.
What makes this so shameful? As I have written previously, DeSantis is on a campaign to control what Florida's children read and learn about Black history.
Earlier this month, the second-term governor announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion as well as critical race theory, or CRT, which examines the ways in which racism was embedded into American law and other modern institutions, maintaining the dominance of white people.
The DeSantis administration also blocked a new advanced placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violates state law and is historically inaccurate. In the new framework, topics including Black Lives Matter, reparations and queer theory are not part of the exam.
And last year, DeSantis signed the “Stop Woke Act” that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses. The law bars instruction that defines people as necessarily oppressed or privileged based on their race.
A US state shelved m book – yet all I was doing was trying to help people live their lives
Fox Fisher
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The governor has imposed sweeping restrictions on books in public schools, forcing some teachers to remove books from their libraries or use paper to cover up their shelves. They face felony charges if unsanctioned books are present in their classrooms.
ThThe pattern of repression is clear, and it is spreading.
At least 25 states have considered legislation or other steps to limit how race can be taught, according to an analysis by Education Week. Eight states have banned or limited the teaching of critical race theory or similar concepts through laws or administrative actions.
All of which reminds us of the true nature of the corporate imperative: to make money, to pursue its fiduciary obligations to shareholders, and to lie with ease when it benefits them.
At least we still have journalists willing and able to provide a transparency that many would be more than happy to obscure.
While I have posted now a few times on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's campaign to keep people in abysmal ignorance. there always seems to be something more to say on the topic. My friend Gary alerted me to a new article in The Guardian about the fervent Floridian's campaign to lay waste to young minds, keep them in profound ignorance about American history, and feed red meat to his acolytes.
Last year he signed the Don’t Say Gay bill, a nasty little law that bans classroom discussion of sexuality or gender identity issues – effectively forcing children and teachers alike to stay silent about their families and lives, under the threat of lawsuits.
Since then, the Florida governor has repeated the playbook in increasingly ambitious fashion. Last April, DeSantis signed the exhaustingly titled “Stop Woke Act,” which restricts lessons on racial inequality in public schools. The bill prohibits the teaching of material that could cause a student to “feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress,” due to US racial history ...
Indeed, DeSantis seems intent on obstructing anything that might foster greater awareness and critical thinking.
In mid-January, DeSantis’ Department of Education issued new guidance to educators, saying that all books that have not been approved by a state compliance censor – euphemistically termed a “school media specialist” – should be concealed or removed from classrooms. Because the law deems some books “pornographic” or “obscene,” it also creates the possibility that teachers who provide books that feature LGBT content to students could be given third-degree felony charges.
Last month, DeSantis announced that he would ban the AP African American studies course, saying that the course, which had initially included readings on Black feminism, the Black queer experience, and the Black Lives Matter movement, violated his Stop Woke Act, and was “pushing an agenda on our kids.”
Sadly, the College Board cowardly acquiesced in this effort to quell inquiry, and now DeSantis has set his sights even higher.
Last week, the governor announced a sweeping agenda to overhaul the state’s public universities, aiming to make their curricula more conservative by eliminating tenure protections for progressive faculty and requiring courses on “Western Civilization.” He’s started with the New College of Florida, a small liberal arts honors college with an artsy reputation. There, DeSantis installed a new board made up of Christian college administrators, Republican think-tank denizens, and the right-wing online influencer Christopher Rufo. The board promptly fired the college president, and has set about reshaping the mission and instruction of the college in DeSantis’ image.
De Santis's motives in all of this crass obstructionism is transparent.
Schools are spaces where lots of voters – and crucially, lots of the white, conservative voters that DeSantis needs to mobilize – feel they have a stake. It’s easy to get people riled up and panicked about kids, easy to pray on people’s protectiveness towards their children as a way to exploit their anxieties about the future, about a changing culture, about lost innocence. And frankly, it’s easy to get people to be mad at teachers...
And if that weren't bad enough, there is a more sinister interpretation to what he is doing.
... there is a more foundational reason why DeSantis and the far right are attacking education: it is the means by which our young people are made into citizens. Schools and universities are laboratories of aspiration, places where young people cultivate their own capacities, expose themselves to the experiences and worldviews of others, and learn what will be required of them to live responsible, tolerant lives in a pluralist society.
It is in school where they learn that social hierarchies do not necessarily correspond to personal merit; it is in school where they discover the mistakes of the past, and where they gain the tools not to repeat them. No wonder the DeSantis right, with it’s fear of critique and devotion to regressive modes of domination, seems to hostile to letting kids learn: education is how kids grow up to be the kinds of adults they can’t control.
Education has traditionally been viewed as a tool of liberation from ignorance, of social progress and increased opportunity for all. DeSantis has badly perverted it, lustily cheered on by those who would like to believe that the status quo of the 1950's (or perhaps even further back) worked just fine for everyone who mattered.
