History is an integral part of education, and that is why it is deeply embarrassing and disappointing that Florida governor Ron DeSantis wants to censor history in Florida high schools.
DeSantis has proposed the “Stop WOKE” law, which was later renamed as the “Individual Freedom Act”. The bill seeks to limit how public schools discuss race and gender. I am sure a law such as this is especially concerning for those studying Women’s and Gender Studies here at Keene State. One class that is targeted by this bill is a new advancedlevel African American history course. According to Nadine Yousif of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), “The Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies course is the College Board’s first new class since 2014. It is set to cover more than 400 years of African American history, touching on topics like literature, political science and geography.”
Although this bill is called the Individual Freedom Act, it is ironic that it is doing the exact opposite of giving individuals freedom. If high school students want to learn about topics of race and gender, then they should be able to.
Schools should absolutely have African American history courses. The teaching of history should not be ethnocentric. There is such a diversity in history and it should all be covered.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed an amicus brief in a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the bill.
According to the SPLC, “Educators often struggle to teach about the history and origins of racism, resulting in a generation of high school graduates who lack basic information about the history of their country.”
It is very shameful that DeSantis would want to make it harder for educators to discuss these topics instead of being honest about history.
Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. said in a tweet, “Despite the lies from the Biden White House, Florida rejected an AP course filled with Critical Race Theory and other obvious violations of Florida law. We proudly require the teaching of African American history. We do not accept woke indoctrination masquerading as education.”
This is a completely ignorant statement that shows a common misconception about what Critical Race Theory (CRT) even is.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “Critical race theory, or CRT, is an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society — from education and housing to employment and healthcare. Critical race theory recognizes that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is embedded in laws, policies, and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities. According to CRT, societal issues like Black Americans’ higher mortality rate, outsized exposure to police violence, the school-to-prison pipeline, denial of affordable housing, and the rates of the death of Black women in childbirth are not unrelated anomalies.”
It makes no sense to be angered about CRT because there is nothing wrong with teaching the truth about history. CRT is only taught at a college or advanced placement level anyway, so criticism of it in average high school classes makes no sense. Schools need to educate the public and they can’t ignore parts of history that certain politicians might be uncomfortable with.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
