Slavery was beneficial because the people enslaved acquired skills鈥攖hat’s something Florida’s middle school students will learn under new African American history standards approved this week by the state’s board of education.
The new curriculum will also offer high school students a new perspective on the , in which 30 Black Floridians were killed while trying to vote. The teachers must apply the lens of “acts of violence perpetrated by African Americans,” charged in a letter to the board of education.
Finally, while elementary students will be expected to identify leading figures of African American history鈥攕uch as Rosa Parks, Zora Neale Hurston and George Washington Carver鈥攖hey will not learn about their achievements, the union’s letter argues. Andrew Spar, the Association’s president, blamed Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who has famously called his state the place where “woke came to die” and championed the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law that restricted how schools can teach about LGBTQ issues.
More from 91看片: Popular superintendent steps down after district loses $1.2M to scammers
“How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don鈥檛 have a full, honest picture of where we鈥檝e come from?鈥 Spar asked. “Gov. [Ron] DeSantis is pursuing a political agenda guaranteed to set good people against one another, and in the process he’s cheating our kids.”
But proponents, such as DeSantis school board appointee MaryLynn Magar, insist the standards developed by a state task force will give Florida’s students a complete understanding of African American history.
鈥淓verything is there,鈥漲uoted Magar as saying at a contentious meeting on Wednesday. 鈥淭he darkest parts of our history are addressed … I can confidently say that the DOE and the task force believe that African American history is American history, and that鈥檚 represented in those standards.鈥
In response to the adoption of the African American history standards, FEA issued the following press release.
"How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don鈥檛 have a full, honest picture of where we鈥檝e come from?鈥
— Florida Education Association (@FloridaEA)
