Peter Brown wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 12:01 pm
MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:53 am
Peter Brown wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:13 am
jhu72 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 11:00 am
The Miami Herald had an unsettling report on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Civics Literacy Excellence Initiative.
Several South Florida high school educators are alarmed that a new state civics initiative designed to prepare students to be “virtuous citizens” is infused with a Christian and conservative ideology after a three-day training session in Broward County last week. Teachers who spoke to the Herald/Times said they don’t object to the state’s new standards for civics, but they do take issue with how the state wants them to be taught.
One 12th-grade government teacher told the newspaper the recommendations from the training sessions were infused with “a very strong Christian fundamentalist way toward analyzing different quotes and different documents.” Another educator added, “It is disturbing, really, that through these workshops and through legislation, there is this attempt to both censor and to drive or propagandize particular points of view.”
The teacher added, “There was this Christian nationalism philosophy that was just baked into everything that was there.”
The Herald’s report added:
Those dynamics came into full view last week, when trainers told Broward teachers the nation’s founders did not desire a strict separation of state and church, downplayed the role the colonies and later the United States had in the history of slavery in America, and pushed a judicial theory, favored by legal conservatives like DeSantis according to three educators who attended the training.
Those assessments were bolstered by Acadia University’s Jeffrey Sachs, who published a striking Twitter thread highlighting several of the most jarring lessons DeSantis’ civics program recommends.
Making matters just a bit worse, the Florida Department of Education is leading the workshops, but the Herald found that the lessons were developed with the help of Hillsdale College — a “politically influential private Christian college in southern Michigan,” which is one of the entities “working with the DeSantis administration to reshape education in the state.”
It led one local educator to conclude, “There is this false narrative that we’re indoctrinating children, but that is nothing compared to what the state just threw in new civic educators’ faces. That’s straight-up indoctrination.”
... should surprise no one. Douche bag southerners like DeSantis have been trying to rewrite the history of US since they lost the civil war.
Libs upset that Florida is teaching our kids basic civics, history, and patriotism.
Here are the words of an actual teacher, not some lib journalist. Have a listen.
https://twitter.com/skmorefield/status/ ... OxMCaC7ynw
Assuming that this young man really does teach the "ugly" of American history as he says he does, the kids are lucky to have such an enthusiastic teacher. I would hope that they are exposed to many such enthusiastic teachers in the course of their eduction, though not all with his strong political leanings. While, I'd be pleased to have my child exposed in 7th grade to this enthusiasm for our country, I'd want subsequent exposures to challenge this unabashed enthusiasm, go deeper into the complexities of our history, and especially to emphasize that the challenges which were unaddressed or unresolved in conformance with the ideals expressed by the Founders are not yet complete. The Civil War did not complete them, the Suffrage Movement did not complete them, the Voting Rights Act did not complete them, etc...
Unfortunately, there were a couple of 'tells' in his otherwise positive speech (and I'm not including his butt kissing of DeSantis). Starting with the focus on the Declaration of Independence's "intrinsic rights" (unalienable rights) from the Creator, his driving emphasis is on the religious rationale of Jefferson, without caveat, without mention of Jefferson's contradictions. He teaches them, very confidently, specific points of view and then claims that he teaches them not what to think but rather how to think...these are 7th graders...are they truly invited to think for themselves OR to accept his preferred interpretation, his filtered information, his unabashed enthusiasm?
Again, assuming he really does what he claims re the "ugly", I'm ok with that as a first exposure, in 7th grade, to civics. As children's minds further develop, challenge them to address the complexities and contradictions.
I thinks civics (government, social studies, history), over multiple course exposures, should be taught enthusiastically, but fully, not shying away from the "ugly". And I'm highly suspicious of religiously infused, Southern apologist curricula. Long, long history.
And it's gaining momentum again.
For instance, Texas apparently wants to remove the word "slavery" from their school curriculum and books..."forced relocation"...
Abe is a fantastic teacher, full stop. No need to add uninformed qualifiers sort of like ‘I hope he’s not MAGA but he does promote Thomas Jefferson therefore…’. C’mon. Jeebus.
This is the type of teacher we are seeking in Florida. We don’t want the leftist variety which bemoan America 24/7, wearing black on July 4. They can remain in blue states.
Good lord, do you realize that you just quoted me, dishonestly???
Not only did I not use those words, nothing I said was remotely close. What a liar you are, Petey.
But ok, do
you think he's MAGA? Do you think he believes in the Big Lie, that our democracy is under attack not from Trump and his acolytes, nor Big Lie purveyors, but rather by "socialists" and pedo's maybe...???
Do you think that he believes that our rights contained in the Bill of Rights are from the Creator, or does he just think that Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are proper justification for the rejection of tyranny and the right to form a government of consent?
Do you think he purposely ignores Jefferson's contradictions, or maybe thinks George Washington really did cut down the cherry tree perhaps?
That he's a MAGA whack job wasn't my general takeaway, but if you know better, go ahead and enlighten us.
My sense was that he's an enthusiastic teacher teaching 7th graders and wants to help them be proud to be Americans, to value their citizenship, and to begin to understand the history of the country, at a level appropriate for 7th graders...BUT... his butt kissing and self congratulation and his emphasis on the religious construction are 'tells' to me that I wouldn't want his views to be his students
sole exposure to these issues over the course of their education. And what I'm reading about this "excellence" effort is to constrain teachers to this messaging, solely, and reward teachers for compliance. And yeah, that's fascist.