Those new to studying history often think history and the past are the same thing. The past refers to an earlier time whereas history describes our attempts to research, study and explain it.
To this end, Many Diaz, Florida Commissioner of Education (FDOE) recently made the following statement: “To uphold our exceptional standards, we must ensure our students and teachers have the highest quality materials available – materials that focus on historical facts and are free from inaccuracies or ideological rhetoric.”
“Historical facts.” To attempt to research, study and explain it.
Notwithstanding Commissioner Diaz’s statement ensuring students and teachers [must] have the highest materials that focus on historical facts,” NPR reported on May 10, 2023, that Florida education officials have rejected dozens of social studies textbooks. “Florida Rejects Some Social Studies Textbooks and Pushes Publishers to Change Others.” Please refer to source below.
Textbooks reportedly only got through FDOE after publishers made revisions requested by the state.
Adam Laats, a historian of education at Binghamton University in New York, said American publishers had altered textbooks for over a century to assuage political concerns. He noted that conservatives have frequently advocated for censoring educational materials, and in his opinion, Florida’s announcement was no different.
Is this the dumbing down of education?
In one case in Florida, one publisher removed references to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. This is the content of what was removed.
New Calls for Social Justice
“During the 2000’s, one effect of an increase in the use of mobile devices and social media was the spread of images of police violence, sometimes deadly, against Black Americans. The deaths of Black Americans outraged many Americans and led to a growing awareness of systemic racism that permeated the broader society.
In 2013, a new social and political movement called Black Lives Matter formed to protest violence against Black Americans. The movement called for an end to systemic racism and white supremacy.
In 2002, bystanders captured video footage of a white Minneapolis police officer killing George Floyd, an unarmed Black American accused of using a counterfeit $ 20.00 bill. Floyd’s brutal killing horrified many Americans, and protests broke our in cities across the country.
While many Americans sympathized with the Black Lives Matter movement, others were critical. Critics blamed the movement for incidences of violence or looting at protests. Others charged that the movement was anti-police, especially after some in the movement called for local governments to out or eliminate funding for the police.”
The FDOE stated reason this section was eliminated was not that it was inaccurate or biased but that it dealt with “unsolicited topics.”
An “unsolicited idea” is an idea that is transmitted to an organization without any request or encouragement by the organization itself. Apparently, FDOE wasn’t moved by the solicitation.
Can YOU explain why this content about the killing of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter was removed? It happened. Why can’t it be researched and studied?
Was it because a white now-fired Minneapolis police officer, now a convicted murderer killed George Floyd, a black man, on Memorial Day, 2020? Floyd stopped breathing after white Minneapolis Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck while he was being handcuffed for nine and a half minutes. Despite Floyd repeatedly saying that he could not breathe, Chauvin continued kneeling on Floyd’s neck, even after he lost consciousness.
Or, was it because of The George Floyd protest movement, which began hours after his murder as bystander video and word of mouth began to spread. The George Floyd protests were a series of police brutality protests that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of international reactions to the murder of George Floyd.
Protests quickly spread nationwide and to over 2,000 cities and towns in over 60 countries in support of a resulting Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Polls in the summer of 2020 estimated that between 15 million and 26 million people had participated at some point in the demonstrations in the United States, making the protests the largest in U.S. history.
Were the removed references to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement meant to discourage white students from knowing what a white man did and then what ensued after the black man was so horribly killed?
But then again, there’s a third possibility. According to the Heritage Foundation, Black Lives Matter “are shown to be avowed Marxists who say they want to dismantle our way of life. Along with their fellow activists, they make savvy use of social media to spread their message and organize marches, sit-ins, statue-tumbling’s, and riots. In 2020 they seized upon the video showing George Floyd’s suffering as a pretext to unleash a nationwide insurgency.”
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank promoting public policy research and analysis based on free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. It brands itself as a beacon of intellectual conservative establishment.
Apparently in Florida, due to the removal of that reference to George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, teachers won’t have to grapple with how to deal with these issues.
But In Chicago, the school district assembled an 11-page toolkit, titled “Say Their Names,”with guidance for talking with students about racism, police violence, and the Black Lives Matter movement. It also includes specific help for tackling these issues virtually and reminds teachers that students should be able to opt out of conversations. “No matter how well-planned and expertly-facilitated these conversations are, they can be re-traumatizing to Black youth,” the toolkit notes.
Saint Paul Public Schools, located not far from where Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, also put together a guide to help teachers discuss his death and the ensuing protests, with questions for students of different ages.
Los Angeles Unified published guidance and reading lists, too, while Washington D.C.’s public schools are holding a free online workshop for parents looking for help talking about race with their children.
Riah Williams, fourth-grade humanities teacher at Rocketship Rise Academy in Washington, D.C. wrote: “History books and social studies curriculum that are mass produced for use in public education to be told, almost exclusively, through a white, male lens. History stories often treat the white actors kindly, while failing to recognize the contributions of African Americans or actions that have undermined their well-being. We can’t teach Black students how to become active citizens if we’re not giving them a true understanding of how 400 years of history has shaped their lives today.
It’s the ultimate responsibility of our public education system to prepare students to be engaged and informed citizens. Our democracy literally depends on it. For that reason, understanding modern society through the context of history should be a critical part of every student’s education.”
According to an opinion piece by The Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board,
“Rather than excise George Floyd’s story from a textbook, Florida should learn from it, which requires a fuller spotlight of what happened on that fateful day, May 25, 2020 — and in the months and years thereafter. This story isn’t solely about Floyd’s death, but about how individual citizens reacted in real time to exercise their democratic rights. Those bystanders flexed their legal authority to shoot that critical video, lawfully documenting the abuse that brought these officers to justice.”
George Floyd was dissed by Florida’s curriculum.
Sources:
2022-2023 K-12 Social Studies Examples of Rejected Materials
https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/instructional-materials/2223-k12-ss-examples.stml
Florida Department of Education
the74million.org
theheritagefoundation.org
tampabay.com
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