Georgia’s K-5 ‘Social Studies’ Curriculum Is A Trojan Horse For Leftism
New Education Standards Force Gay History, Climate Alarmism, And ‘Math Identity Rainbows’ On Students
Florida rejects social studies textbooks containing leftist propaganda and revisionist histories about BLM, communism
Florida has once again evidenced Gov. Ron DeSantis' November claim that the state "is where woke goes to die."
Students will not be subjected to textbooks pushing leftist propaganda and revisionist histories. Instead, per the suggestion of Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., kids will be provided with textbooks that "focus on historical facts" that are "free from inaccuracies or ideological rhetoric."
The Florida Department of Education announced Tuesday that 66 out of the 101 instructional materials submitted for inclusion in the state's social studies curriculum for every grade level were approved.
While the majority of materials were ultimately accepted, only 19% of materials were initially approved "due to inaccurate material, errors and other information that was not aligned with Florida Law." However, the Education Department has worked with publishers to get the materials up to Florida's standards.
\u201cComm @SenMannyDiazJr has released FL\u2019s initial adoption list for K-12 social studies instructional materials. The approved list includes state standards-aligned social studies curriculum for every grade. To date, 65.4% of materials have been approved. https://t.co/Ul6z3ulleB\u201d— Florida Department of Education (@Florida Department of Education) 1683635661
Sticking to the facts
The state has provided several examples of what didn't make the cut.
One submission provided guidance on how to talk to young children about the national anthem, suggesting, "You can use this as an opportunity to talk about why some citizens are choosing to 'Take a Knee' to protest police brutality and racism."
This suggestion was stricken from the accepted material.
Another textbook, this time targeting grades 6-8, attempted to hype socialism — an ideology linked to most of the 20th century's totalitarian regimes and mass murders.
The text said that socialism "keeps things nice and even and without unnecessary waste. These societies may promote greater equality among people while still providing a fully functioning government-supervised economy."
Rather than include this advertisement for the discredited ideology, the revised textbook strikes a historically accurate distinction between planned and mixed economies, noting some of the disincentives for industriousness and efficiency intrinsic to the former.
\u201cA textbook claimed that socialism "keeps things nice and even and without necessary waste" and that socialism "may promote greater equality among people while still providing a fully functioning government-supervised economy."\u201d— Bryan Griffin (@Bryan Griffin) 1683642193
In a grade 6-8 text that delves into the positive impacts of the Judeo-Christian tradition on society, leftist rhetoric has been dropped in favor of more neutral terms in the utilitarian accounting.
Florida also refused to subject students to sanitized, revisionist histories about BLM radicals.
A grade 9-12 text was flagged because it entertained the leftist fallacy that brutal communist regimes such as those found in the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China were not representative of real communism.
"As for a true communist economy, there are none in the world today, and there have never been any in the past," said the text. "Communism still remains a theoretical ideal in the minds of many revolutionaries, even though in practice it has never been reached."
DeSantis' education department saw to it that the text now reads, "In theory, labor in a communist system is organized to benefit the whole community, and everyone consumes according to his or her needs. In practice, wealth in communist systems flows to a tiny elite. ... Communism as imagined by Marx remains a theoretical ideal in the minds of many revolutionaries, but in practice it has failed."
Awake, not woke
"Thanks to Governor DeSantis’ and the state’s consistent adherence to high quality, rigorous and factual content, Florida continually earns praise as a leader in education, including the recent number one ranking by U.S. News & World Report," Diaz said in a 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," Diaz added.
This initiative is keeping with DeSantis' vow in April 2022: "In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida."
The New York Times reported that these efforts may prove consequential in states besides Florida.
Extra to sparing 3 million Florida public school students from leftist talking points, students in Florida, Texas, and California may also benefit, since the publishers who worked with the DeSantis administration to achieve higher standards with their texts also cater to these states.
Republican efforts to take politics out of education are not without their critics.
The editorial boards for the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel decried the removal of leftist propaganda from the curriculum in a Wednesday op-ed, writing, "It's better to be 'woke.'"
The editorial collective claimed that DeSantis' objectives were to "cater to bigoted and resentful white voters"; "breed a generation of future voters who will have learned nothing about racism's history or continuing consequences"; and "desensitize the nation's courts to systemic economic and political injustices."
After comparing the elimination of leftist agitprop from Florida grade school textbooks to efforts by apologists for the former Confederacy to paint a rosy picture of slavery, the editors suggested that it's up to the voters — who re-elected DeSantis in a landslide — to determine whether or not eliminating woke content should continue.
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South Dakota Is Debating What Could Be The Best K-12 History Curriculum In The Country
Texas Board Of Education Pauses Plan To Wokify Public School History Instruction
Texas GOP lawmaker refutes claims his bill would drop Ku Klux Klan, civil rights, and women's suffrage from curriculum
The author of a Texas bill that would restrict the teaching of critical race theory in schools said claims that his bill would strip lessons on the Ku Klux Klan, civil rights, and other topics from the state curriculum were outright false.
Sen. Bryan Hughes (R) responded to critics of his bill on "The Glenn Beck Radio Program" Wednesday, explaining that the legislation he's offering would not make a single change to requirements in Texas administrative code for the teaching of slavery, the civil rights movement, the Ku Klux Klan, and other topics Republicans have been accused of trying to "cancel" by passing bills banning critical race theory in schools.
"Anyone can go to Chapter 113, of the Texas administrative code. That's where our curriculum elements are found," Hughes told BlazeTV host Glenn Beck. "Chapter 113, Texas administrative code. That's before my bill. That's after my bill. It's still there, and you will find many specific references to difficult subjects, like slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, eugenics. Things like the women's suffrage movement. A lot of that, Dr. King, we adore and look up to Dr. King so much. You'll find many references to him, to Susan B. Anthony, to the civil rights movement. The underground railroad. The very things -- the very things that we're accused of removing — are specifically set out in the curriculum standards today."
Hughes' bill, S.B. 3, is legislation that would follow-up and amend a House bill signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in May that restricts the teaching of critical race theory in schools. The law specifically prohibits teaching that one race or sex is inherently superior to another; that an individual, by virtue of race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously; that an individual bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of their race or sex; that the advent of slavery in the United States constituted the true founding of the nation; and other tenets of critical race theory that Republicans across the nation have sought to remove from school curriculums.
The House bill that became law was amended by Democrats to require teaching "the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong," along with readings related to "the civic accomplishments of marginalized populations," including Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and writings by Susan B. Anthony.
The Senate bill would amend the law to remove several of the specific requirements Democrats added, a change that Hughes explained was requested by teachers and the State Board of Education, who asked for the law to cover broad topics and let schools decide which specific documents they should teach.
But a report from the Huffington Post seized on S.B. 3 and accused Republicans of trying to "eliminate a requirement that public schools teach that the Ku Klux Klan and its white supremacist campaign of terror are 'morally wrong.'"
The report said that the "cut is among some two dozen curriculum requirements dropped from the new measure, along with studying Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech, the works of United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony's writings about the women's suffragist movement, and Native American history."
What followed was a wave of backlash and outrage from journalists on social media falsely accusing Republicans of trying to ban teaching about the Ku Klux Klan.
"We've dealt with media bias for a long time. Everybody gets that. But to falsely state objective facts, and to do it again and again. And to have this echo chamber ... it is remarkable." Hughes said.
He told Beck that what S.B. 3 actually does is "teach our students to judge people, based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin."
"It specifically says, in Texas public schools we do not teach that one race is inherently superior to another. That one sex is inherently superior. It specifically rejects white supremacy, or any racial supremacy. Or inferiority. It also says, one race -- members of one race are not inherently racist, and unable to overcome their racism," Hughes said.
"Do we have problems in America's past? Of course. And we teach American history. And Texas history. Good, bad, and ugly. But we teach our students how we overcome it, by coming together as Americans, not by being racists," he added.
The lawmaker went on to criticize critical race theory as a "toxic, evil doctrine" that "attacks the very heart of the American dream."
"In critical race theory, they're teaching little white children that they should feel guilty about bad acts by previous generations of white folks," he said. "Even worse, they're telling little children, from the Nordic communities, little black children, brown children. They're telling them, oh, you can never make it in America. It's so against you. You'll always be second class.
"What a horrible message to teach those children. Let's teach them, that we can all succeed. Are there problems? Yes. We'll overcome them as Americans. But everyone gets a chance. Everyone can succeed in America. And critical race theory, as you said, undermines, the very heart of the American dream."