Florida's Empty Education--Dumbing Down America

So, now Shakespeare is in the cross-hairs. AP Psych, AP African-American Studies, and myriad books are all unacceptable. But videos that deny climate science are already approved. Don't show sculpture, other art, etc. And for heaven's sake (!!) don't "say gay." EVER. The College Board/SAT, AP tests-- yeah, those are being replaced by a "Classic Learning Test." In other words, a white, European-centered, narrow "education" that falls just short of making the Earth the center of the Universe. 

I don't know how all of this will end, but I suspect that either a/ people graduating high school/ college in Florida will become the laughing stock of the actual educated community, or b/ we'll all be dumbing down if DeSantis wins. Or any of the other extremist-conservatives. I wonder what grudge they really have against educated people?

I can't and won't teach that way. It's hard enough; the laws in NH already have enough restrictions, and I'm leery and wary about what I can/ cannot teach and say. It's a tightrope walk, every single day. But I'll walk it-- the kids are gonna be running things sooner than we think, and I, for one, don't want to have someone looking up Dr. Google to figure out what's wrong with me if I'm in the ED. 

This shift to a narrow view of what it means to be educated is antithetical to "21st Century Education" and it will definitely hamper people's chances at good jobs that actually improve the lives of other people in any way. Keep 'em ignorant is a really bad policy, in my mind. It protects NO ONE. 

And they will be incredibly ignorant, and will have little desire to change that. We only become lifelong learners if we are self-aware enough to know that we don't have a handle on all there is to know. When it becomes possible to only teach excerpts from classics, in the name of "classical" education, we are in big trouble. 

Please, be aware of what's happening at your local level. This foolishness needs to stop.

Take care,

C