Florida Department of Education rejects AP African American Studies course

No no I understand the difference. I was using the list of mandatory subjects for African-American history as a hermeneutic to get in the mindset of those who determined that the course is unacceptable like AP African-American history. I don't think that's an unreasonable hermeneutic, as I suspect there is substantial overlap between the individuals making each determination, for lack of a better term and to be oversimplistic, the Hillsdale crew.

It's also consistent with what I understand of their worldview. Very roughly speaking and oversimplifying, whatever the original sin of slavery brought to our country was fixed through the 13th amendment. Usually the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s is also included. I found its exclusion here especially telling. I know they're not saying you can't teach it, but they are saying you are subject to being questioned for indoctrination if you do. That's even further right than the usual far right.

In any event, their worldview is that anything that was ever wrong with US race relations was corrected through the 13th amendment, or in a lot of instances, the Civil Rights Movement. We have expurgated and atoned the sin, and most of all, there is absolutely nothing systemic. I'm not making that myself. The DeSantis officially testified in the Andrew Warren trial was asked to define the "wokeness" that they are outlawing in Florida, and he basically testified (I'm paraphrasing) the belief that there is anything systemic about the mistreatment of anyone. They reject it as a concept

 

Gotcha. I've just read so many things (here and elsewhere) that conflate the two.

 

So, the College Board changed the at issue course, eliminating many (all?) areas of concern raised by Florida's governor and his staff. Seems the College Board's actions over the last year tend to support Florida's decision not to implement the original pilot course. Interesting.


>>The College Board on Wednesday released its official – and revised – framework for the course, and CEO David Coleman told USA TODAY that "at the College Board, we don't really look to the statements of political leaders.

"We look to the record of history."

About a week earlier, on Jan. 24, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed on Twitter that the College Board “will be revising the course for the entire nation” due to the governor’s “principled stand for education over identity politics.”

The new framework does address many of the concerns Florida raised, and those topics are not included, or they are included only as optional project topics. But Coleman was firm that the changes to the framework have been in the works for a year. <<

Florida rejected AP African American Studies. Here's what's actually being taught in the course (msn.com)

 

Please don’t think that this had anything to do with DeSantis. The new/final framework was done in December. I’ll let you figure out why it was unveiled on February 1st.

It typically takes about five years to update/create course curriculum. When they updated the course I teach it took that long and that was for a course that had been taught for years (AP US Government and Politics.)

In addition, even when a course is approved not every school teaches it and once a school decides to offer it teachers have to go to a weeklong training and submit a syllabus to College Board and then be approved to teach that course.

 

Alinsky has a great story about how he got a community fired up and ready for action. He knew that the city had certain resources available for communities like the one he was working in, so he rallied a bunch of people together, marched on city hall with a very specific set of demands that he knew the city already had available. They made a bunch of noise and got everything they were demanding and the people were fired up and ready to start the real work.

 

>>So, the College Board changed the at issue course, eliminating many (all?) areas of concern raised by Florida's governor and his staff. Seems the College Board's actions over the last year tend to support Florida's decision not to implement the original pilot course. Interesting.<<


If you read my comment with an objective mind, you will see I did not claim Florida’s rejection of the pilot course brought about the changes/corrections/ improvements to the course. I clearly acknowledged the CB had been working on the changes for a year. However, it appears the fact the CB changed the course supports Florida’s decision to reject the deficient pilot.

Also, who or what lacked the intelligence to submit the pilot course, which the CB acknowledged had problems, instead of waiting for the revised course?

 

You didn't attribute changes to DeSantis but DeSantis sure did. The working draft document was leaked, it wasn't submitted from I understand and was told to me.

These curriculum frameworks are the product of several experts in their fields at the university level and of course there were disagreements about what should be in the final design.

If you read any of my other comments, I stated that there were problematic issues in the draft.

 

An example of an acceptable spin

 

I agree with your point. Not including some topics or issues in educational plans because they can hurt someone's feelings or make someone uncomfortable is not right. C'mon, if it's a part of history or something else and is very important, it should be included.
I've not read the detailed program of that rejected studies, but if it's indeed something valuable and needed, but was rejected because of something not corresponding to educational reasons or quality, then it's not right

 

Well, DeSantis is a politician and lawyer so by nature he is inclined to take credit for something he didn’t directly or indirectly impact.

 

Dubois' observation years ago is equally if not more applicable now:

 

College Board answers back.

College Board slams Florida's "politically motivated" claims about AP African American Studies

 

I was step slow ...
College Board is a bit late on this reaction:

College Board slams Florida's "politically motivated" claims about AP African American Studies

 

Thanks. Beat me to it. Covers the MO

 

Why it is always risky to fight him - he will kill the hostage. DeSantis is willing to harm Florida education and it's students to make a political point

 

Call his bluff.

 

Yep, the conservative parents at my school would blow a cork if we didn’t offer AP classes.

 

Agreed. And it would not play well nationwide for Ron's Presidential campaign. Parents would not like the idea of a man in the White House who wants to ban their children from taking AP classes.

 

I don't know if he would cancel them, but count on him taking some more rhetorical shots at some of the black scholars that the AP Board was defending. That's an easy target for his base. It doesn't matter how scholarly and correct they are