Florida Board of Education Approves New Standards for Teaching Black History

The Florida Board of Education has issued new guidelines for teaching black history in the state.

The Florida Board of Education based the new order on recent guidelines that said lessons on race must be taught in an “objective” manner that does not seek to “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.” Per The Hill:

The updated standards on African American history instruction include “benchmark clarifications” to provide additional guidance to teachers on specific topics for instruction. One updated standard that has drawn particularly strong outcry directs teachers to include instruction on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Another “benchmark clarification” under increased scrutiny directs teachers to include instruction on “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans” when teaching about the growth and destruction of Black communities during Reconstruction and beyond. Among the examples listed as an act of violence was the 1920 Ocoee (Fla.) Massacre in which dozens of African Americans were killed when they went to vote.

Critics of the move called it a “big step backward,” adding that it would diminish gains made to educate about black history.

“The Florida State Board of Education today adopted new African American history standards. In doing so, they confirmed many of the worst fears educators had when the Stop Woke Act was signed into law last year,” said the Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers union.

“These new standards are a disservice to Florida’s students and are a big step backward for a state that has required teaching African American history since 1994,” it added.

Andrew Spar, president of the association, also said in a press release that students will not be able to get a full picture of the past based on the new guidelines.

“How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don’t have a full, honest picture of where we’ve come from? Florida’s students deserve a world-class education that equips them to be successful adults who can help heal our nation’s divisions rather than deepen them,” he said.

“Gov. [Ron] DeSantis is pursuing a political agenda guaranteed to set good people against one another, and in the process he’s cheating our kids. They deserve the full truth of American history, the good and the bad,” he added.

The move by the Florida Board of Education comes after it rejected a high school Advance Placement course for African American studies, arguing calling it “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” it said in January of this year.