According to Florida's New History Standards, Rosa Parks Was an "Irresponsible" Citizen.
Much of the attention over the past few days on Florida’s new state history standards has focused on the teaching of the history of slavery. There is plenty to worry about in this area, but today I want to focus briefly on another section of the standards.
Consider this excerpts from the section of the standards focused on the teaching of government and civics.
Notice how the state draws a clear distinction between “responsible” and “irresponsible citizenship.” Students are required to understand the difference between the two, in part, through examples from the past, public symbols, and the state’s choice of public holidays.
It also forces students to accept that “reciting the Pledge of Allegiance daily is an act of patriotism.” Students must also recognize certain holidays and observances as “patriotic.” Interestingly, the state failed to share with students that it still recognizes Confederate Memorial Day and the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis as legal holidays.
Are these holidays examples of “patriotism” that students should recognize? If yes, why were they not included and if not then why haven’t they been abandoned?
It gets even more absurd if we try to flesh out the above distinction between responsible and irresponsible citizenship. The former is defined by “obeying the law” while the latter, “breaking the law.” Seems straightforward, but what does that mean for someone like Rosa Parks, who is selected as one of two “individuals who represent the United States”?
The state standards recognize Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, and John Lewis as important and worthy of study, but how exactly are teachers supposed to frame their contributions to the United States as anything other than examples of irresponsible citizenship?
All three individuals broke the law or engaged in acts of disobedience at different times as did many men and women who took part in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 60s. According to Florida’s standards they are all examples of irresponsible citizenship.
This raises some obvious questions. Are teachers who suggest otherwise or allow their students to engage in critical discussion about this question risking their jobs and careers? Will they be accused of engaging in Critical Race Theory or pushing some other vaguely defined agenda?
Florida’s rigid definition of what it means to be a responsible citizen and the implications for how historical figures like Parks, King, Lewis, and countless others are taught is a step back to the 1960s when polls suggested that significant percentages of white Americans were troubled by acts of civil disobedience and protest.
Florida’s new state history standards has little to do with the teaching of history and critical thinking. History education in Florida has been turned into a weapon wielded by a governor and administration desperate to maintain political power.
As a retired history teacher, who loved history and whose students did well in class and later in college—I would not teach today, particularly in Texas or Florida—since their governors seem to be in a “hold my beer” contest with less than admirable goals.
Did the Florida governor actually study history at school? Twain's whitewashing story wanders across my mind. Prevaricating Tom Sawyer got his aunt's fence whitewashed at a tidy profit, at the expense of gullible boys in town. Florida school children will be gulled, perforce, if Ron deWhitewasher's law stands.
For discussion: I would from KML's own 'Searching for Black Confederates' add the example of Booker T. Washington. Before 1900, Washington had achieved scientific prominence at his own Tuskeegee Institute. Part of his success was careful subservience to the ethos of The Lost Cause. Rejection of Union unity was building to its zenith (does it trump onward yet?) and White supremacy demanded Black subservience. Blacks knew that their bread could be buttered only occasionally, if butter could be begged at all. Washington, therefore, advised Blacks to only aspire to industrial jobs, dispensed by Whites.
This brings out that for supremacists like deSantis, non-Whites must crawl into a subservient status if they are to co-exist with him/them/theirs. Thus, a shout-out for our Vice President's impromptu trip to Florida to rebut him. (Kamala springs from my own San Francisco political circle that sends so many leaders to Washington.)
Affectionate RIP to TONY BENNETT. As a San Franciscan whose ears more than once grew weary of hearing of 'the little cable cars' after the SF Giants won ballgames, I want to pay tribute with two stories I heard on National Public Radio. Harry Belafonte (also a recent RIP) got him into the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. The rednecks would not allow any clubs to loan their equipment, so a Black mortuary loaned coffins to him. That's what he stood on to serenade the marchers by the roadside!
Before that, he was a 19 year old GI in Europe, still Anthony Benedetto. His racist sergeant caught him about to have Thanksgiving dinner with an African American buddy from New York. The NCO humiliated him for disobeying racial fraternization regulations, and transferred him to graves registration, which handled corpses.
(Thanks, KML!)