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A couple of weeks ago, in the week of Jan 16 thread, there was a discussion of the kerfuffle re Florida refusing to offer the pilot of AP African American Studies. There were a couple of minor developments last week. First, the course description is available here
Second, Florida specified its objections here
Now, I am not a fan of most "studies" courses, because, in my limited experience, they tend to lack rigor and often push a political viewpoint, which is both a disservice to students and, to the extent that students are required to parrot that viewpoint, a First Amendment violation when the course is taught in public schools (and in private schools as well, in California). I have not looked closely at the course description for the AP class, so I don't know if it has those flaws. That being said, this decision by Florida seems to be more a part of the DeSantis for President campaign than a principled objection. That is because the course description is not a curriculum, and the course description, like all AP course descriptions, says:
I have attended several AP trainings in my day, and can attest that they make a big deal about individual teachers being given autonomy, as long as their syllabus addresses the content and skills set forth in the course description. So, none of the readings complained about are required, and teachers are free, as required by Florida's "Stop WOKE Act" to assign readings on all sides of the issues in question.
And, btw, the claims on the other side that Florida does not want to teach African American history is also nonsense, because teaching of African American history is mandated in FL schools
Edit: PS: There is a very odd complaint in the Florida DOE's list: It objects to a reading by one author in part because, "Kelley's first book was a study of Black communists in Alabama." Not, 'an adulatory study," but merely a "study." It is like objecting to a reading by Donald Horowitz because he wrote a study of ethnic riots.
I'm having intense flashbacks to culture wars of years past, with the polarities reversed. I'm of course talking about "creation science".
It's all the same arguments. The "both sides" arguments, the "this belongs in a social studies class, not science" arguments, the "you can't have an authority figure like a teacher showing preference for these ideas in an education setting" arguments. And we more or less saw how that culture war shook out. I see no reason this one shouldn't follow through to the same conclusion. AP African American Studies is not education. It's dogma masquerading as such. It's no different in substance, rigor or evidence as "creation science".
I have zero reason to ever give the people teaching this curriculum the benefit of the doubt. Every interview with African American Studies scholars I've seen lambasting the decision is full of all the mealy mouthed buzzwords and turns of phrase I've learned to interpret as massive red flags.
The insistence that they don't "teach kids what to think, but how to think". Which I've learned is actually far more pernicious when you teach people how to think incorrectly. To turn a phrase, throw someone's fish in the river, they'll go hungry for a day. Teach them the wrong way to fish, and they'll go hungry the rest of their life.
There is always the old classic that they teach kids to study history "through a critical lens", which rather gives the game away. The "critical lens" only ever points one direction.
And of course in the interview I saw on The Hill, the scholar further emphasized that MLK Jr's legacy needs to be placed in the proper context of MLK Jr's "Democratic Socialism and radical" beliefs, if you believed any of the red flags I listed above had a more benign interpretation.
Furthermore, DeSantis was elected almost specifically to do this. If he actually has the authority to do so, I'm all for it. I'm over arguing principle. This is naked power politics, that I've been on the receiving end of. Turn about is fair play.
Because in my local school district that has tripled down on far left policies, they just lie. They lie when they are caught. They lie when those lies are exposed. When a grand jury is empaneled to investigate them, they lie more. When the grand jury report is released, they tell even more lies. It's lies the whole way down. The process has taken 3 years and counting, and in the meantime, nothing has changed and they still have our children as a captive audience. These are institutions that have learned to obscure, confuse and obfuscate through extreme bureaucratic defense in depth, and they've repeatedly proven themselves to be utterly untrustworthy.
Note that the syllabus never uses the term "critical lens". But it does use "lens" in that manner. It's like they were trying to avoid the trigger word while still getting the meaning across.
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