Florida scrubs BLM, George Floyd mentions from middle school textbook

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Gov. Ron DeSantis continues his fight against “woke indoctrination” as he works with state officials to remove contentious material from Florida’s textbooks, particularly related to current racial and social justice issues.

According to The New York Times, a passage about the Black Lives Matter movement, the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, and its effects on society is no longer found in a middle school textbook following a review. 

The omitted passage described demonstrations and stated that while “many Americans sympathized with the Black Lives Matter movement,” others criticized the movement’s use of violence and looting and saw it as anti-police. The state government said the passage covered “unsolicited topics.”

Florida’s Department of Education said in a news release on Tuesday that state officials first rejected 82 out of 101 social studies textbook submissions because they contained “inaccurate material, errors, and other information that was not aligned with Florida law.”

However, the state worked with publishers to make adjustments as part of a comprehensive effort to update the materials, ultimately approving 66 of the 101 textbooks and rejecting 35.

The state’s education department released a document outlining several revisions at the publishers’ request. The state’s proposed revisions included the removal of “home support” advice from an elementary school textbook on how to discuss the national anthem, which had suggested that parents “use this as an opportunity to talk about why some citizens are choosing to ‘take a knee’ to protest police brutality and racism.” 

Florida officials said the content was not age-appropriate.

Adam Laats, a historian of education at Binghamton University in New York, said American publishers had altered textbooks for over a century to assuage political concerns. He noted that conservatives have frequently advocated for censoring educational materials, and in his opinion, Florida’s announcement was no different.

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“Using age appropriateness is a strategic or tactical move,” Laats said, The Times reported. “Parents and other stakeholders tend not to like the idea of textbooks having important information cut out. But parents are friendly to the idea of age appropriateness.”

Officials also edited a text on different types of economies to remove a description of socialism as keeping things “nice and even” and possibly promoting greater equality. The explanation was marked as inaccurate, and “socialism” was eliminated entirely.

Textbook publishers said they have been attempting to “decipher” how to adhere to Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which DeSantis — a Republican expected to announce a 2024 presidential bid — signed last year to ban instruction that could force students to feel responsibility, guilt, or anguish for what members of their race have done in the past.

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Nearly three million Florida public school children will be taught history differently because of the state’s authorized list of social studies textbooks, which covers a range of topics, including slavery, Jim Crow and the Holocaust.

The textbooks that Florida approves can also affect what students learn in other states. The three largest markets — Florida, Texas and California — are among the states that authorize textbooks statewide. Publishers frequently use them as a model for their content in smaller markets.

In a statement, Florida’s education commissioner, Manny Diaz Jr., said textbooks should “focus on historical facts” and be “free from inaccuracies or ideological rhetoric.”

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