Story by Daniel S. Levine • PEOPLE- Yesterday
The vice president called the Florida Board of Education's new academic standard on how to teach slavery an "insult"
Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Vice President Kamala Harris.© Provided by People
Vice President Kamala Harris called the Florida Board of Education's newly approved guidelines on how to teach slavery an "attempt to gaslight us" as the new academic standard requires middle schools to teach Florida students that enslaved people "developed skills" that "could be applied for their personal benefit."
"Speaking of our children, extremists pass book bans to prevent them from learning our true history – book bans in this year of our Lord 2023," Harris, 58, said in a speech at Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.'s 56th national convention in Indianapolis Thursday. "And while they do this, check it out, they push forward revisionist history."
"Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery," Harris continued. "They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it."
Paras Griffin/Getty Vice President Kamala Harris.© Provided by People
Related: Florida Middle Schoolers Will Now Be Taught That Slavery Had ‘Personal Benefit’ for Enslaved People
The academic standards were approved on Wednesday in response to Florida's 2022 "Stop WOKE Act," which requires race to be taught in "an objective manner" that does not "indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view."
The new guidelines state that middle school teachers must now teach students about "the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation)."
There is also a guideline directing educators to teach high schoolers about "acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans" when discussing Reconstruction after the Civil War. This standard lists the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, in which over 30 African Americans were killed by a White mob while trying to vote, as an example.
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After the State Board of Education adopted the new standards, the Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers' union, called the changes a "big step backward for a state that has required teaching African American history since 1994."
"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," FEA president Andrew Spar wrote in a press release.
Elementary school students will also be asked to "identify" Rosa Parks, George Washington Carver, Zora Neale Hurston, and other famous African Americans without being taught their "histories and struggles," the union wrote.
SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.© Provided by People
"Evidently in an attempt to protect students from wokeness, these new standards will make sure that, through the fourth grade, elementary school students' knowledge of African American history doesn't extend beyond being able to know who a famous African American is when they see them," the release states.
The new standards were approved months after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration rejected a new Advanced Placement course on African American history in January. It is the College Board's first new class since 2014.
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In a letter, the Florida Department of Education Office of Articulation said the course "lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law," adding that, "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."
DeSantis, who began his 2024 presidential campaign in May, has also sought to reshape educational policy in the Sunshine State through the so-called "Don't Say Gay" law. The "Parental Rights in Education" bill took effect in July 2022 and bans discussion of certain LGBTQ+ topics in public schools, including gender identity and sexual orientation.
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