![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/floridas-new-black-history-curriculum-sanitized-say-critics/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/130475573_gettyimages-1544015965.jpg&description=Image source, Reuters Image caption, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr has defenced the new guidelines Florida has approved controversial new standards for teaching African American history at the state's public schools. The updated guidelines include a requirement that students learn "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit". Critics called the new guidelines "sanitized" and "a big step backward". Florida's education commissioner has denied the lessons will shy away from "the tougher subjects". The new set of standards follow the passage of legislation last year that bars school instruction suggesting anyone is privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin colour. The law is one facet of a broader assault on what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, calls "woke indoctrination" in the US education system. The academic standards, approved on Wednesday at a meeting of the Florida Board of Education, are designed to guide lessons from kindergarten through high school. The 216-page social studies curriculum includes teachings on how black people have positively influenced and contributed to the country, on the causes and consequences of the slave trade, and on the civil rights advancements made throughout African American history. But it also includes several revisions. Educators and civil rights advocates have raised concerns about two in particular. When students are instructed on the various duties and trades performed by slaves, lessons must now include how these skills "in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit". And during lessons on the growth and destruction of black communities during the Reconstruction era, including events like the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, students must be made aware of how violence was perpetrated both "against and by African Americans". "How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don't have a full){kind=link}
Florida has approved controversial new standards for teaching African American history at the state’s public schools.
The updated guidelines include a requirement that students learn “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”.
Critics called the new guidelines “sanitized” and “a big step backward”.
Florida’s education commissioner has denied the lessons will shy away from “the tougher subjects”.
The new set of standards follow the passage of legislation last year that bars school instruction suggesting anyone is privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin colour.