Two days after DeSantis tweeted this,
two days after the nation paid homage to Martin Luther King Jr. he, by mandate, eliminated the teaching of A.P. African American history studies in our schools.
From Rolling Stone,
FLORIDA HAS BLOCKED the College Board from testing a pilot Advanced Placement African American Studies (APAAS) curriculum in the state under Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Stop WOKE” Act. According to a letter obtained by National Review, Florida’s Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the curriculum “is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
The pilot course, which has been tested at 60 schools across the United States, aims to expand the advanced coursework offered by the College Board into the study of the African diaspora in the U.S. The course has run afoul of DeSantis’ widespread ban on teaching “critical race theory” (CRT) in K-12 classrooms. CRT is an analytical framework that seeks to dissect the manner in which racism has shaped American legal theory and institutions. The concept has been co-opted in recent years by right-wing reactionaries to fearmonger about any and all discussions of race and discrimination.
First, a pilot program is designed to work out the kinks to ensure it has educational value, not that I have any reason to think it doesn’t already.
Can you imagine that? He basically said because he doesn’t like it, it won’t be taught. Can you imagine a biology teacher saying nope to evolution or a history teacher teaching slavery wasn’t that bad? Don’t imagine too hard, because those things and worse are being taught in Florida’s publicly funded voucher schools.
This is my take. DeSantis has a binder of (women) things he thinks will own the libs and gin up his base, and every 15 minutes or so, he rolls them out. He has no ideas about solving the very real problems of out-of-control insurance rates, skyrocketing rents, affordable health care, or gun violence, none, none at all. He’s an empty suit, demagoguing instead of leading.
We could and should be doing better.
People like Ronnie love to take random quotes from MLK to support whatever batshit position they're taking. They fail to take into account the context these quotes were made in which might explain why they love to play revisionist historiana. If you only look at a piece of the puzzle without looking at the larger whole you're going to be lost. "Conservatives" love to wrap themselves in the flag when they might as well be taking a dump in it.
ReplyDeleteI find it hilarious that the FLDOE thinks it is the final arbiter of what is "historically accurate" given its track record.
"In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the letter stated.