Florida bans AP African-American Studies course from schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What is wrong with high schoolers learning about these things? This is a college-level course.

[Anonymous]

It is hard to understand why there is such a fuss about an optional course. I guess the total number of students enrolled is each high school is about 10.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Florida for protecting your kids and your public dollars from this propaganda bs.

If the Woke Church wants to indoctrinate children, they should pony up, not steal our resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you Florida for protecting your kids and your public dollars from this propaganda bs.

If the Woke Church wants to indoctrinate children, they should pony up, not steal our resources.

Protecting them from what? What danger does black history pose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you Florida for protecting your kids and your public dollars from this propaganda bs.

If the Woke Church wants to indoctrinate children, they should pony up, not steal our resources.

And yet millions of Americans are willing to indoctrinate their children into believing that god is real.

And aren't church and other religious schools exempt from federal taxes? Surely our public dollars are subsidizing this religious propaganda bs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I think we are living in Bizzaro World.

Desantis keeps referring to “the woke mob.”

Mob?? Are Democrats storming the Capital and plotting to kidnap governors?

I honestly don’t know how an educated person could possibly want that party at the helm of our country.

Is there no middle ground between storming the capitol and black queer post racial racism? Why do we have to choose one? Can't we have something more moderate?

There is a middle ground.

It's called Florida.

That's why PP and the woke mob want to demonize DeSantis.

Middle ground is don’t use the power of the state to ban stuff just because it includes uncomfortable truths that you want to deny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you Florida for protecting your kids and your public dollars from this propaganda bs.

If the Woke Church wants to indoctrinate children, they should pony up, not steal our resources.

And yet millions of Americans are willing to indoctrinate their children into believing that god is real.

And aren't church and other religious schools exempt from federal taxes? Surely our public dollars are subsidizing this religious propaganda bs?

Excellent analogy even if you missed it.

Imagine some Evangelical Church developed a course called Christian-American Studies. Would you want public schools to offer it?

This is the same. Well done Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you Florida for protecting your kids and your public dollars from this propaganda bs.

If the Woke Church wants to indoctrinate children, they should pony up, not steal our resources.

And yet millions of Americans are willing to indoctrinate their children into believing that god is real.

And aren't church and other religious schools exempt from federal taxes? Surely our public dollars are subsidizing this religious propaganda bs?

Excellent analogy even if you missed it.

Imagine some Evangelical Church developed a course called Christian-American Studies. Would you want public schools to offer it?

This is the same. Well done Florida.

Except, Constitutionally, it isn't. Poorly done Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you Florida for protecting your kids and your public dollars from this propaganda bs.

If the Woke Church wants to indoctrinate children, they should pony up, not steal our resources.

And yet millions of Americans are willing to indoctrinate their children into believing that god is real.

And aren't church and other religious schools exempt from federal taxes? Surely our public dollars are subsidizing this religious propaganda bs?

Excellent analogy even if you missed it.

Imagine some Evangelical Church developed a course called Christian-American Studies. Would you want public schools to offer it?

This is the same. Well done Florida.

Except, Constitutionally, it isn't. Poorly done Florida.

It is the very same thing. Florida has the right and the responsibility to ensure public education meets some basic requirements. Neither a course developed by the Evangelical Church nor one by the Woke Church meets those requirements.

End of the story.

[Anonymous]

I thought the current trend was to abolish all AP courses in public schools as such courses discriminate against URM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to the idea of local control over education? Why does this need to be mandated at the state level?

I'm skeptical of the educational value here (especially at a high school level), but shouldn't individual school districts be able to make that decision on their own, without state involvement?

I agree with your main point, but still the state has the responsibility to ensure some minimum quality standards.

You wouldn't want to see some district drop all math courses in all grades because math is racist or whatever, would you?

If the course lacked rigor that would be one thing, although it's doubtful to me that an AP course is going to be so lacking in rigor that it should be banned.

The worrying thing for me about this the class is framed as "contrary to Florida law." This seems most likely to be referring to the Stop WOKE Act. That act banned teaching a number of things, but looking at what's been posted of the curriculum I'd guess the big issue is the clauses prohibiting teaching that a "person by virtue of his or her race, color, national origin, or sex is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously" and that "members of one race, color, national origin, or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race, color, national origin, or sex."

Without weighing in on how I feel about those statements, I have no issue with anyone agreeing with DeSantis that those statements are untrue. What bothers me that the state is interpreting the law in a way that makes it illegal to learn that some people DO think those statements are true. Reading something written by someone who thinks all white people are inherently oppressive is not at all equivalent to teaching that that belief is true. By the time a kid is taking an college level social studies course, they should be exposed to a wide variety of beliefs including ones that the government of Florida might disagree with. If the Florida government is interpreting the Stop WOKE Act in a way that bans teaching ABOUT ideas the government finds objectionable, I think that's a real problem.

It is good to be skeptic, and better to review the actual evidence.

In this case, there are many red flags about the course. But don't trust what I say, just look up the course details yourself and see what you think.

If you'll read my comment more carefully you'll notice that I have done just that. It's how I was able to identify what I suspected were the "issues" with the course. Nothing in the sections highlighted as a problem by people in this thread ("Postracial Racism and Colorblindness" and "Black Queer Studies") suggest a lack of rigor. The fact that many people find an idea disagreeable with an idea doesn't mean you can't study it with rigor. After all, I think a normal APUSH class calls on students to read and understand arguments for slavery (mine certainly did). Students can study the arguments for slavery seriously, even if we all agree that those arguments are wrong. It's the same with "Black Queer Studies," you're free to think that school of thought is silly, but I don't see how you can argue that studying it is so unserious as to be illegal for a high school teacher.

"Postracial Racism and Colorblindness" and "Black Queer Studies" don't suggest, they PROVE, that this AA course lacks academic rigor and it's pure political propaganda.

The curriculum has not been set and there is no publicly released syllabus. I have seen that the Black LGBTQ experience might be covered (and BTW should be— it is unique). Please post substantiated evidence the rest is in the syllabus. When I look, I found that it covers such things as African history (the continent of), the slave trade, the Harlem renaissance and the African diaspora. And I cannot figure out why a class that covers these things is more controversial than AP European.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is the audience for this class? Black kids who really dont need anymore reasons to hate white people. Woke white people who think they are saving and aligning with black people but most likely have no black friends or neighbors.

Anyone interested in African history in culture. Just like AP European is tailored towards those interested in European history and culture. And, BTW, if you want to learn bout white people acting badly, AP Euro is for you (the Crusades, the Holocaust, also the slave trade, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What is wrong with high schoolers learning about these things? This is a college-level course.

Goopers want more dumb racist voters. Making teenagers think critically doesn’t accomplish that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you Florida for protecting your kids and your public dollars from this propaganda bs.

If the Woke Church wants to indoctrinate children, they should pony up, not steal our resources.

And yet millions of Americans are willing to indoctrinate their children into believing that god is real.

And aren't church and other religious schools exempt from federal taxes? Surely our public dollars are subsidizing this religious propaganda bs?

Excellent analogy even if you missed it.

Imagine some Evangelical Church developed a course called Christian-American Studies. Would you want public schools to offer it?

This is the same. Well done Florida.

Except, Constitutionally, it isn't. Poorly done Florida.

It is the very same thing. Florida has the right and the responsibility to ensure public education meets some basic requirements. Neither a course developed by the Evangelical Church nor one by the Woke Church meets those requirements.

End of the story.

The course was developed by the same organization that developed AP calculus and physics. I guess Florida should ban those too lest they knell at the woke church

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What is wrong with high schoolers learning about these things? This is a college-level course.

I actually think this looks really interesting. Definitely covers topics not studied in APUSH.

My kid went to TJ, which does social science differently. There isn’t room in the curriculum freshman year, so kids have to find room for a 4th history of their choice. Mine did anthropology (1 semester) and American History since 1989 (1 semester). Which was fine. But, I think he would have learned more in a class with this syllabus.