Thursday’s CNN This Morning featured a segment where hosts Abby Phillip and Phil Mattingly expressed how appalled they were at Florida’s new standards for education in black history. Joined by CNN national correspondent Athena Jones, they spoke about how these “inaccurate” and “ahistorical” changes would disable teachers from teaching “the proper history,” and how they were “very disturbing when it comes to actually teaching accurate history in the schools.”
Phillip started the discussion by explaining the situation and describing one example of the changes:
Education and civil rights advocates are slamming new black history teaching standards in Florida. Under the new rules, middle school teachers must now include lessons, quote, “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
She called the situation “absolutely bonkers,” and noted how the changes were, in her eyes, “incredibly controversial, obviously, but they’re also not correct.”
Jones agreed, calling the changes “inaccurate” and “ahistorical,” claiming that they were “a big step backwards.” She said that this was the case because it would not allow Florida students “to learn the full truth and the full accurate truth of American history.”
She took the specific example that Phillips had brought up, that of the “middle school students saying slavery is beneficial,” claiming that it was “an odd thing to say about a group whose labor went uncompensated for generation upon generation.”
The quote that Phillip made above about this subject was from the official Florida State Academic Standards, where this was a clarification made on a section about teaching “the various duties and trades performed by slaves.”
It is just a fact that many of the skills, especially agricultural skills, that these people acquired while working on plantations probably benefitted them immensely when they gained emancipation and were able to work their own land and earn money for themselves.
Jones then continued to complain about another change, which was the requirement for teachers to teach about “acts of violence perpetrated by African Americans” during various historical massacres and riots that targeted black people.
When pointing this out, she omitted the two words, “against and” included in the Academic Standards, which required education on “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” Seems like an important thing to note, since this just entailed equal and honest instruction about all the acts of violence performed in these massacres, regardless of the race of those who committed them.
This was one detail that Jones clearly didn’t know about, since she complained that “these standards say you have to talk about acts of violence perpetrated by blacks,” as though that was all they said.
Because of all of these changes, Jones lamented, the schools “just aren’t going to be teaching the children of Florida, one of the largest states, the third largest state, the proper history.”
What would “the proper history” be, then, if not these genuine attempts at standardizing equal education about people and events in history, without using race as a factor of bias?
Apparently, teaching history in this way was one of the Florida Education Association’s “worst fears.”
CNN's misinformed complaining about Republican efforts to teach equal, less biased history was brought to you by GoDaddy and SoFi. Contact them via their linked contact information and let them know that this is what they're supporting.
Transcript of the segment below (click Expand):
CNN News Central
7/20/23
6:50:56 AM ET
ABBY PHILLIP: Education and civil rights advocates are slamming new black history teaching standards in Florida. Under the new rules, middle school teachers must now include lessons, quote, “how slaves developed skills, which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit.”
CNN's Athena Jones is here on this absolutely bonkers story. These changes are incredibly controversial, obviously, but they're also not correct.
ATHENA JONES: Right, it's inaccurate, it's ahistorical. Critics are calling this a—a big step backwards and saying it's a disservice to Florida students ‘cause they're not going to learn the full truth and the full accurate truth of American history. And this is, of course, the latest development in ongoing debates over how to teach kids about black history.
You mentioned one of the most shocking examples for middle s—middle school students saying that slavery was beneficial. It's an odd thing to say about a group whose labor went uncompensated for generation upon generation.
Here are some of the other examples we have, we can put them up on the screen, of things that are involved in this curriculum. One of them is the teaching of the Ocoee Massacre. Teachers are required to mention acts of violence perpetrated by African Americans. Similar standards are applied to other massacres, the Tulsa Massacre, the Atlanta Race Riot, Rosewood Massacre.
And I want to be clear here, these are all cases of violent armed mobs of white people attacking black Americans, and yet these standards say you have to talk about acts of violence perpetrated by blacks.
They're also not required to teach African American history past Reconstruction to elementary and middle school students.
And they omit the fact that Florida, in 197—1957, the legislature passed a resolution opposing the Brown v. Board landmark decision by the Supreme Court that ended legal segregation in public education.
So, these are standards that—that—that critics say just aren't going to be teaching children of—the children of Florida, one of the largest states, the third largest state, the proper history. And it won't prepare them well for the future.
PHIL MATTINGLY: All right, what are Florida officials saying to justify this?
JONES: They say this meets—
MATTINGLY: Good luck, but—
JONES: They say this meets their goals—all the goals that they've set out for when it comes to teaching history. But the Florida Education Association, which says it's the largest union in the southeast, it represents some 150,000 members, they say, “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? Governor 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.”
And the union went on to say that this confirms their worst fears. You know, last year Governor DeSantis passed—or signed into law the Stop Woke Act. The whole idea being that it banned instruction in—telling children that they were either privileged or oppressed on the basis of race or sex or national origin.
So, this is not over.
PHILLIP: Yes.
JONES: There is clearly a lot of people up in arms about this.
PHILLIP: Very, very disturbing when it comes to actually teaching accurate history in the schools.
Thank you, Athena Jones.
