Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has recently rejected a push from the College Board to sign off on a new African American studies curriculum, reportedly because of a number of concerns that it stood in violation of a recently cemented ban on attempting to indoctrinate students into wokeness.
Officially signed last year, the Stop Woke Act stops schools in Florida from trying to teach students to discriminate on the basis of race, color, or sex — ideals that can be seen quite regularly in a number of other woke programs. This move from DeSantis takes place in the wake of a federal judge issuing a ruling in favor of the attempt from his administration to fully set up additional parts of the law.
“[A]s presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” stated the Florida Department of Education to the College Board as part of a letter sent out on January 12th which was obtained by The National Review. This letter also claims that the department will reconsider in the future should the College Board elect to make it “lawful” and “historically accurate.”
Known as the premier national group that allows high school students to get college credits for taking advanced courses, the College Board has been testing the waters with a brand new African American studies program to prepare it for a national-scale launch in 2024. The company currently has curricula for a large number of other courses throughout the entire 50 states, including courses in sciences, languages, and the arts.
Until now, however, the company has chosen to not venture into the “studies” fields — which normally include African American studies but also gender studies, women’s studies, and ethnic studies — which is more often than not seen as the most highly woke departments throughout higher education.
Those standing in support of teaching a class on African American studies have argued that the courses heavily encourage holistic thinking about the history of the U.S., but detractors state that the curricula themselves put primary emphasis on the narratives of Left-wing advocacy and grievance instead of on history.
The website for College Board, for example, seems to suggest that a major in African American studies can make you ready for a single career field: activist and community organizer. In contrast to this, the College Board suggests that someone who majors in history will be prepared for a large number of varied careers such as an anthropologist, conservator, curator, foreign service officer, historian, judge, or attorney.
Officials with the College Board have chosen to not release publically its African American studies curriculum, making the argument that it has proprietary information. Despite this, it is known that the curriculum leans quite heavily into the tenets of Marxism, socialism, and sympathy toward CRT tenets, like a fullscale rejection of colorblindness.
A statement from the College Board explained that the curriculum will continue to cary out a review process prior to any sort of public release.
“Like all new AP courses, AP African American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multi-year pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars and policymakers,” concluded the College Board. “The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks change significantly as a result. We look forward to publicly releasing the updated course framework as soon as it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools.”
