Board of education replaces course at 12 public universities with own US history curriculum, in latest ‘anti-woke’ attack
Educators are warning that college enrollment in Florida will plummet after the state removed sociology as a core class from campuses in the latest round of Ron DeSantis’s war on “woke ideology”.
The Republican governor’s hand-picked board of education voted on Wednesday to replace the established course on the principles of sociology at its 12 public universities with its own US history curriculum, incorporating an “historically accurate account of America’s founding [and] the horrors of slavery”.
The board faced a backlash last summer for requiring public schools to teach that forced labor was beneficial to enslaved Black people because it taught them useful skills.
The removal as a required core course of sociology classes, which Florida education commissioner and staunch DeSantis acolyte Manny Díaz insisted without evidence had “been hijacked by leftwing activists”, follows several other recent “anti-woke” moves in education in Florida.
Although the general education classes like psychology and sociology are annoying, they’re all essential knowledge for being an educated human being. It’s a shame Florida wants their population to be ignorant conservatives.
ignorant conservatives
If you’re referring to today’s definition of “conservative”, then that’s redundant.
When was conservatism not ignorant? Certainly not in my lifetime. It’s been an ideology of anti-intellectualism for at least three decades now.
It’s been an ideology of anti-intellectualism for at least three decades now.
30 years is maybe pushi… Oh wait, that’s only 1994. Yeah, you’re right.
True, but now it’s off the rails.
Edit:
Margaret Goldwater advocated for birth control and reproductive rights in the United States during the twentieth century. Goldwater was a socialite and philanthropist and was married to Barry Goldwater, US Senator from Arizona. She spent much of her life working to further the women’s reproductive rights movement, which sought to expand women’s legal, social, and physical access to reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortions.
Barry Goldwater was considered the father of the modern conservative movement; his wife’s work would likely result in his excommunication from today’s Republican Party.
I feel like Conservatism USED to be “How can we save money and prepare for a better financial future as a country/state/etc.?”…
It kind of moved along the lines of “How can we stop
financiallysupporting things and people that are different to us?”Now, the financial part is just an excuse.
I feel like Conservatism USED to be “How can we save money and prepare for a better financial future as a country/state/etc.?”…
No, that’s always been nothing more than a lie conservatives tell to try to excuse their abhorrent policies.
What conservatism really used to be was defending the monarchy, and it still is. I was going to say “…and the only thing that’s changed is that they no longer try to use ‘divine right’ as a justification and prefer a different title for the autocrat in charge,” but nope!
Every conservative I know I have tricked into defending the British at the Boston Massacre and at the Boston Tea Party. Just don’t drop the name of the event and they will go nuts. Kids throwing snowballs at police? No wonder they got shot, they asked for it. A mob breaking into private property and destroying commercial goods? That’s not a protest that’s a riot, someone should have put the dogs down!
The word you’re looking for is “Reagan”.
The Luddite movement was conservative. The Luddite movement was also exactly right about where work automation would lead.
I’d also argue anti-colonialist guerrillas are usually trying to conserve their way of life, making them conservative.
Sometimes conservatism can be pretty based.
classes like psychology and sociology are annoying
It’s a bummer that you had that experience. Mine were absolutely fascinating. That said, my school had some flagship social science departments, so the people that instructed there were not the b-team.
If a university doesn’t have a good program in a particular discipline, good people don’t want to work there, and the current staff often don’t have the expertise to hire for it.
They’re alright classes. I enjoyed the professors I had but I feel like the majority of people want to speed through the GEs and get going on their actual major classes.
Besides for my intro to philosophy course I don’t think I got much out of my GEs.
I remember writing a research paper on roe v wade not to long ago. Thought it would be an easy paper that’s kind of socially acceptable and not at all controversial. Found out that conservatives do wild shit like kill doctors and harass rape victims. I hate society.
The quality of an overall department and the quality of classes taken by non-majors to fulfill degree requirements are two different things. For example, my university has a great architecture school, but that didn’t stop the “history of industrial design” class I took to fulfill my art requirement (as an engineering major) from being mostly an exercise in memorizing pictures of chairs.
English comp at RIT back when it was trimesters. I’ll never understand. Not a technical writing class or shutting that could really benefit a tech heavy student base. English comp freshman year. Miserable.
Thankfully I transferred in and didn’t have to take miserable English courses by a tech focused University. The technical writing course I had to take at RIT was easy mode. The guy gave us all of the homework for the entire quarter on the first day and as long as it was all turned in before then, that was ok. It was a required class that I personally did not need due to my previous education and I don’t think I spent more than a few hours total to get an A.
Yeah i desperately needed a technical writing course at that age. I was a hot mess. I most certainly didn’t need an English comp class where i was actually required to turn in one of those awful black and white composition pads at the end to pass. I hard noped and took it the next trimester with a bunch of upper class kids who needed it and it was a walk in the park.
It was a shame that a lot of classes at RIT could be really hit or miss depending on the professor. I graduated before they went to semesters, and you had no time to be sick, lost, or behind. I tried to sign up for an extra class every quarter so I could have the option to withdraw from one of them and still be full time. Knowing when to withdraw, especially not waiting until the last minute, was a lesson I wished I knew that first year I was there.
Technical writing is very much not the same as general English composition, and I always hated it when schools lump it together. To this day I still work with people who don’t even know where to start. Having a bunch of robotics engineers balk at having to write documentation about their own designs blew my mind. It wasn’t even the manuals, just general design and functional specifications. Less than 10 pages, half of them pictures. I was nice and made the skeleton for them with some notes on what information I needed in which sections. Hopefully, they learned from it.
It’s a shame Florida wants their population to be ignorant conservatives.
Look at the entrance polls for the Republican primaries.
There’s a 30 point spread between Trump’s support depending if the person went to college or not.
How much is correlation vs cause and effect is debatable, but certainly in a democracy an educated public can’t hurt.
classes like psychology and sociology are annoying
Sociology was my favorite general ED class outside of my discipline. I’m sure it varies by teacher but it can be really fun and interesting!
Yeah I really enjoyed how society thinks and behave. Still, I wouldn’t major in it.
Sociology sure, I don’t know about the intro to psychology experience of ‘hey check out all these famous theories, paradigms, and experiments. At least half of which are largely disproven or under serious doubt but we wont say which.’
Depends on the school and professor I guess. My intro to psych class made it clear how much older paradigms are, basically, just flights of fancy, however there is a foundation of moving towards a system of discovery and diagnoses that was important, instead of literally super natural explanations. With new stuff they went over how difficult it is to create solid proofs and the reasons why. They also would do what they could to make sure we understood why they came to the conclusions they did and the short comings of those reasons and practices.
i would add to this that early conceptualizations of psychology have had massive cultural impacts. if you enjoy art, film, literature from the last century and change, it’s worth knowing about Freud and Jung.
their ideas represent an evolution of thinking about people, their minds, their relationships to others and to their environment or to god, but they also underpin so much we take for granted at present in popular culture and day-to-day conversation (at least in “the west”).
Yeah much better, ‘hey check out a half century of our field producing mostly bullshit, this is a good use of your time.’
My point being if you can’t put together a full 1 term curriculum of “here are the fundamentals of our field that we are sure or 99% sure about” then maybe its not a productive use of time to require every single college student spend a class on it.
If you want a history of pseudoscience class then have a history of pseudoscience class.
Well I am sorry that you see no value in understanding how the thing you are studying came to be. However, the majority of people do. Literally every subject I learned did this.
I don’t remember chemistry 101 being 70% about alchemy and phlogiston. This is almost exclusively a phenomenon with intro psychology classes.
If you want to study it fine whatever but there’s no reason it should be a standard GE requirement instead of something like philosophy of science, international relations, genocide studies, etc.
You went to a very different school than I did. We absolutely learned about the development of chemistry in introductory courses. Same with mathematics, physics, etc. This even included getting into how they co-developed. There was a deeper dive into in the liberal arts because it’s it is more important, as they are less mechanical, but STEM definitely got into the basic history of the subject.
Don’t worry, not just the old ones are pseudoscientific
DeSantis has to be a marketing major. The dude is the ultimate panderer. He understands the people of his state and shifts every movement towards their appeasement. All except the state’s populace. He understands the county count for votes and says to himself fuck the cities and the people in favor of the rednecks and MAGA-otts.
Anti-communism warnings to the Cubans and Venezuelans and you win the south. Pro-KKK and you win the north. Some Werther’s caramels and you win the center.
Before you think it, I don’t think he’s a good person. I think he’s an absolute shithead. I just applaud the stupidity of where my parents live.
(Fun fact, I had sane parents….until they moved to Florida, now we barely on speaking terms)
It is wild how polorized American politics have become. There’s no way it’s natural is it?
Amazing how just a handful of the richest assholes can astroturf their way to whatever they want, given just a few decades. You’d think it’d take more than that to control one of the world’s richest countries.
Nope he has a B.A. in history from Yale and a J.D. from Harvard. Plus some time as a J.A.G.
I might have too rethink 'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."
@MicroWave
Remember when #Republicans were all about “the less government in your life, the better”?They used to say things like “the government that governs least, governs best” and “You can’t legislate morality.”
Now they want to decide what books you can read & which bathroom you can use.
Everything they say is a lie to forward their goal of unopposable power and they aren’t very far from it.
We need to stop pretending that the words that come out of their mouths and hands have any meaning other than as a weapon.
Florida seriously losing its luster these days. Used to visit the state for vacations. Can’t imagine spending a dime there anymore.
Don’t worry it’ll be under water sooner or later.
Florida says that’s fake news
/s
no it’s OK, didn’t you hear? it’s illegal to talk about that in Florida. it’s all fine again! Ron just made the climate change illegal! it has to be fake now, because it’s illegal for it to be real!
Well, as a sociology teacher working with psychologists in my current research I get why they decide this.
Politicians like them can’t rule over people even slighty aware of how political discourse and mass manipulation operate.
The medium is the massage. ;)
Baudrillard? Just found out it was this guy.
Yup. I’ve always loved that he liked the error on his book title so much, he kept it. And the book is pretty good as well.
:)
This can’t be true, can it? I know that ads are manipulating me, but that doesn’t magically make it stop working. I’d I never see a gay couple or a black person, no amount of reading will suddenly make it more “normal” to me when I do see them.
I really don’t understand what you’re trying to say.
I’ve never seen two conjoined twins in my life. But if I ever get to bump into one, I’m not going to act differently. Surprised? Sure, but not like “WOW WTF!!!” and pointing at them, laughing at them, asking them stupid questions, etc.
Do you know why? Because I am educated. And I’m assuming you are too.
Try getting out more. Maybe go to a Pride event. You’ll meet awesome people and assholes, but you’ll also gain respect and empathy for people who are marginalized. It can be scary to go into unknown worlds, but discovery is practically a human instinct.
You underestimate your own brain
That’s some inception ish.
I mean, the psychology and sociology fields have been manipulated by those wanting to push their own beliefs through pseudoscientific bibles like the DSM, and through non-reproducable studies- probably around 1/3 psychology and sociology studies. Not to mention rampant P-hacking
@MicroWave As someone with a Masters Degree in Sociology I can tell you this is only part of the NAZI’s intent to make us into a full blown Hitler Regime with a hint of Putinism.
Removed by mod
The party of small government.
the party of constant rancid hypocrisy and bigotry.
Nobody is going to respect any kind of degree from these universities.
Why would you pay to go to school where your credentials will mean Jack shit to anyone?
What a joke.
One wonders what will happen to these schools’ accreditations, really.
I mean, if you’re teaching something you call history and you don’t teach students how to put the course content in its historical context and interrogate those sources critically, you’re not teaching them history, you’re indoctrinating them.
…tho to be fair, that’s honestly what passes for US History in most US schools. The more history I learn, the more I realize most of us aren’t taught
I mean if you’ve been following the news on university leadership, I don’t think Florida universities are the only ones in trouble
Brain drain on a state-level.
I mean, people paid to attend trump ‘university’. There are always plenty of fools who will buy stupid shit. I kind of feel sorry for the students though. Most people are pretty young at university age and many are still forming their perspectives. Getting away from home and meeting new people is an important part of this. Plenty of people from conservative families go away to uni and start to see that they’ve been brought up on bullshit. This is an attempt to stop that from happening - the ‘anti-woke’ shit will attract more conservative students which will reduce the chance that any of them will encounter different views and cultures so they stay in their ignorance bubble. Don’t want little Johnny or Jane coming home from school an anarchist! It’s sad for the students though who will come away in massive debt with a useless degree and have less opportunity for healthy change.
Only if you go to a conservative Christian institution or workplaces, which is not many I can imagine.
they do mention it’s 12 public universities
Right, because they’re the only ones that the state of Florida has control over.
I’m not going to look it up to confirm, but I would guess that’s all of their state universities.
That’s what Derpsantis wants, a state full of workers that have no choice but to fall into the labor and low rung office pool.
The elite DON"T want normal kids getting degrees, because then they compete (successfully) with their ignorant as shit trustfund crotchfruit.
“the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”
For those wondering, this is the definition of “woke” by Rhonda Sandtits lead counsel.
Being “anti-woke” is a dog whistle for racism, sexism, xenophobia and bigotry.
Good argument, but in my opinion (and it’s just like, my opinion, man), calling him Rhonda Sandtits is weird if you’re pro-trans (or at least anti-anti-trans.)
It’s also confusing. I thought it was his wife or something.
I am so sad it isn’t.
While all of you joke and meme in this thread, fascism marches forward.
Incalculable damage has been done to our education system over the years AND EVERY FUCKDAMN TIME IT IS A REPUBLICUNT BEHIND IT.
You know the one thing I will say out of all this, is that if Republicans find sociology so threatening, it as a field must be doing something right.
I left college ages ago, but my sociology course is the one I remember most. I took it as a throwaway elective, but it ended up being my most loved course. The things we learned are applicable to everyday life, and articles like this show how even to this day, it’s still paying dividends.
It’s interesting how conservatives are using the power of the state to mold the population to their liking.
It’s
interestingterrifying how conservatives are using the power of the state to mold the population to their liking.FTFY
Surely Repubs wouldn’t tell lies that they want “small government” while simultaneously legislating what we can learn, who we can love, and what women are allowed to do with their bodies?
Wouldn’t need large government if people
just thought the same waystill had VALUES!And here is what will happen next: The 47th president of the USA , donning golden sneakers, will make America great again, this time for real, in their alternate reality. His tropical White House in Palm Beach, FL, where confidential documents are stored in a “safe bathroom,” is a demonstration that “there is no need to spend money” and everything is small (including his hands and his mushroom shaped…feet).
The government will make sure that there is no regulation on guns, but right to chose will be banned for good, so that the “barbarian women” don’t do anything to babies - these will be able to pay more taxes in the future, for the smallest government.
Slavery will be taught to have been the greatest hoax, and books will explain that it allowed people to get on their feet and buy their freedom.
There will be no limit on what tax savings the rich can get, including receiving money back they didn’t pay, by receiving loans that are forgiven later, and every worker household will have had a chance to pay more taxes, while being fed that taxes are being lowered.
Healthcare marketplace will end, because the 47th will come up with a better plan after killing what exists already. Universal healthcare will be given to all Americans, and will consist of everyone having the right to one primary care physician visit per year, then complement healthcare needs with access to bank loans, to do whatever other treatment one may need. It will be a beautiful plan, the greatest plan… no sick left behind. The economy will grow because banks will have branches inside hospitals and pharmacies; banks will have trillions in loans due to them at all times. Debt will increase, sure, but who cares, current Repubs won’t be around to pay for it.
I’d completely forgotten that we all discovered the president has a nasty little mushroom dick. I’d actually manage to put the image of that man’s malformed cock out of my mind. You just reminded me. Bastard.
He dismissed the idea that it was little and ordered his staff to show the actual size. The folks in the south were able to source a specimen of size and actual proportions in their alternate reality.
I think you’re describing the movie Idiocracy.
First on their agenda, reading is for queers
/s
Brilliant, it is a plot for a movie!!
In “Idiocracy: Making America Great Again,” we dive headfirst into an alternate reality where the 47th president of the USA, sporting golden sneakers and a penchant for grandiosity, leads America down a path of absurdity and excess. His tropical White House in Palm Beach, FL, complete with a “safe bathroom” for confidential documents, epitomizes his mantra of “spending less, achieving more” – even if everything, including his hands and his mushroom-shaped feet, is smaller than advertised.
Under his reign, guns are glorified and regulation-free, while the right to choose is brutally snatched away to ensure the “barbarian women” don’t interfere with the future tax-paying workforce. Slavery is whitewashed as a stepping stone to freedom, and tax breaks for the wealthy flow like champagne at a yacht party, with the middle class left to foot the bill under the guise of “lower taxes for all.”
But fear not, for universal healthcare emerges as the president’s pièce de résistance – a masterstroke of simplicity where every American is entitled to one primary care physician visit per year, with the rest of their medical needs financed through bank loans. It’s hailed as the greatest plan in history, despite leaving most citizens one illness away from bankruptcy.
As banks thrive within hospitals and pharmacies, debt skyrockets, but who cares when the future is someone else’s problem? With “Idiocracy: Making America Great Again,” prepare for a rollercoaster ride through a world where the motto is “Welcome to Costco, I love you!” and absurdity reigns supreme and the only certainty is laughter through the tears.
By Fox Films
There’s a reason why socialist revolutionaries like Castro, Sankara and now Ibrahim Traore focus on education and literacy. An educated populace is an antidote to regressive conservatives.
Could this result in accreditation being pulled, which could make federal student financial assistance unavailable?
If it doesn’t, it should.
He doesn’t care. He really doesn’t care.
What wrong with learning? Annoying, frustrating.
Education is antithetical to conservative beliefs.
They like learning, but only if you learn what they want you to learn.
