The Florida State Board of Education recently approved new guidelines for teaching black history in public schools. There were eruptions from critics who pointed to one of the guidelines included in the 215-page document you can find here.
Literacy in any academic subject, in this case, history, is always a benefit to public school students. However, when politicized critics enter the picture, this can start a political battle. That’s what seems to have happened here.
If you read the document, there is quite a bit of academic content that students will have to learn. This kind of historical information benefits children. You can read the document, and decide for yourself if this ONE guideline is worthy of criticism.
According to Reuters, critics gave the new guidelines a poor grade and reported this:
July 20 (Reuters) – Florida’s board of education has approved new guidelines for teachers on how Black American history should be taught despite sharp criticism from some educators and civil rights groups.
Among the new guidelines for educators are “benchmark clarifications,” including one for middle school students that states “instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
The board of education approved the new teaching guidelines for kindergarten through high school on Wednesday. Florida’s Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said during the board meeting in Orlando that the guidelines go into the “tougher subjects” of slavery and racist violence, as appropriate by age.
“Nothing was removed, including what we continue to say was the good, the bad and the ugly,” Diaz said at the board meeting.
William Allen and Frances Presley Rice, both members of the working group that developed the new guidelines, said in a statement Thursday that the new language regarding slaves learning specialized skills was meant to show they were not merely victims.
“Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants,” according to the statement from Allen, a political scientist, and Presley Rice, an author who co-founded a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness about the roles African Americans have played in the nation’s history.
Critics are charging that the guideline explains how the slaves also learned specialized skills while they were enslaved. If anyone has been following the political battle on Critical Race Theory, this may sound familiar. Critics of CRT have argued that CRT paints all blacks as “victims.” You can see that in this interview with Condoleeza Rice when she appeared on The View:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdx4JsDIsWs
Rice criticizes how the discussion on race has meant that black people have to feel disempowered, ie..believe that they are victims. She goes on to say that she would like black kids to be completely empowered to know that they are beautiful in their blackness. She criticizes the radicalized CRT message that she believes hurts black children.
Critics of the Florida guidelines seem to be concerned that explaining how slaves acquired some skills while enslaved somehow diminishes the impact of slavery on those who were enslaved.
Who is right, and who is wrong?
Let’s take a look at who developed the guidelines. Are they white supremacists ? What kind of people would mention the skills slaves acquired while they were enslaved? Does that try to diminish the evils of slavery? Or does it show the resilience the slaves had during that time in American history?
You need to at least scan through the document to see what students will be learning. In the past, critics have charged that history has been whitewashed. Information has been left out so that students weren’t learning authentic facts and information on slavery in America. Scan through the topics to get a good idea about what and how slavery will be taught to the students in the Florida public schools. You decide if they will be learning a great deal of information, or not.
In addition, look at who is defending these guidelines. Who wrote them? Do they have some kind of white privileged background? Are they part of some white supremacist group? NO!
WILLIAM ALLEN
William Allen was part of the working group, and defends the guidelines. Who is William Allen, and what kind of background does he have that qualifies him for working on these guidelines?
William Allen is described in Wikipedia as:
William Barclay Allen (born 1944) is an American political scientist. He has been Professor of Political Philosophy and dean of James Madison College at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. He was a member of the National Council on the Humanities from 1984 to 1987 and chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights from 1988 to 1989.
Allen’s fields are political philosophy, American government, and jurisprudence. He is considered an authority in matters of a liberal arts education.
You can watch an interview about the State of Black America with William Allen here:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?521141-3/william-b-allen-the-state-black-america
Francis Presley Rice
Francis Presley Rice is a Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. who serves on the board of trustees of Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Florida. Rice served in the Army for 20 years, and then retired as a lawyer with the Judge Advocate General. She also worked for the McDonnell Douglas Corp. as a government contract adviser on the law of space exploration. As a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel with 20 years of active service, she received several distinguished medals.
Rice was raised in poverty, overcame bigotry, and took advantage of opportunities in America to become one of America’s top 100 Black Business and Professional Women.
One can certainly argue that their viewpoint may differ from those who see black Americans as victims, but are they worthy of this kind of criticism?
I would suggest looking past the inflammatory headlines. Read the guidelines. Look at the people who developed them, and then decide for yourself.