Program Success Magazine Black History 2023 | Page 11

Program Success 11 Black History 2023
The course guide for instructors , which runs to two hundred and forty-six pages , states in its preface that A . P . “ opposes indoctrination ” and that courses are built around an “ unflinching encounter with evidence ” and empirical analysis . It ’ s an odd note to direct at teachers of high-school students who have displayed the intellectual and emotional maturity to engage with college-level coursework . However , it ’ s likely intended not for them but for any bureaucrats and politicians who believe that “ wokeism ”— a threadbare slang term for social awareness — is an actual ideology .
Illustration by João Fazenda
The A . P . course is being piloted in sixty high schools across the country , including at least one in Florida , and is scheduled to be available to any schools that offer A . P . courses in the 2024- 25 school year . There appear to have been few problems with teaching it , even in Florida , but on January 12th the state ’ s education department sent a letter to the College Board , which oversees the creation and implementation of A . P . courses , notifying it that the curriculum is “ inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value .” On January 20th , Manny Diaz , Jr ., the commissioner of education , tweeted , “ We proudly require the teaching of African American history . We do not accept woke indoctrination masquerading as education .” He cited the course ’ s references to notable academics , including Robin D . G . Kelley , Kimberlé Crenshaw , and the late bell hooks , as supposed examples of such indoctrination .
A day earlier , the College Board had released a statement saying that the course was still in draft form , and that “ frameworks often change significantly ” during the revision process . But the official framework of the course is scheduled to be released to the public on February 1st , the first day of Black History Month .
Of all the criticisms aimed at the course , the most questionable is the department ’ s contention that it “ lacks educational value .” The course includes contributions from some of the most highly regarded academics in the field , including the literary scholar Henry Louis Gates , Jr ., and the historians Nell Irvin Painter and Annette Gordon-Reed . Faculty from Harvard , Emory , Georgetown , the University of California , and the University of Connecticut are on an advisory board .
With that contention , the department is , in effect , dismissing the import of Frederick Douglass ’ s autobiography “ My Bondage and My Freedom ,” excerpts of which are included in the curriculum ; the Dred Scott decision , also excerpted ; and the Thirteenth , Fourteenth , and Fifteenth Amendments , whose origins are explored in detail .
In fact , the idea that the subject matter covered in the course does not warrant a place in the classroom is contradicted by Florida ’ s own educational standards . Among the topics examined are the transatlantic slave trade , the roots of the Civil War , Reconstruction , and the birth of the civil-rights movement , some of which students are taught as early as the fourth grade .
Last Wednesday , three Florida high school students , represented by the civil-rights attorney Benjamin Crump , said that they were prepared to sue the DeSantis administration if the ban on the course is not lifted .
But there is little likelihood that the course can be revised in such a way that it is palatable to DeSantis and the state ’ s education department without losing the essence of what it is attempting to convey about the miasma of race in American history . Their sense appears to be that the evils of the past are not nearly as dangerous now as the willingness to talk about them in the present .
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis