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.
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.
US’s biggest problem IMO is undereducation. Lots of people seems to lack basic intellectual auto-defense skill. It’s been a problem for a long time, but given how easy AI makes it to create disinformation, the shit will eventually hit the fan and even the GOP will be beging for a minimal education cursus to fix the mess they created.
Education is valued in certain circles. But in others its utterly useless. In most trades it is looked down on.
It’s because education is sold as a way to get a job. Nobody communicates the value of being an educated person other than the salary one could potentially make.
I think it’s two branch to a tree. I’m confused why I’m being down voted when it really seems everyone agrees with my premise. It’s not my fault I’m pointing out how it’s perceived.
I’m confused why I’m being down voted when it really seems everyone agrees with my premise. It’s not my fault I’m pointing out how it’s perceived.
They like to ‘Kill the Messenger’ here on Lemmy a lot, for some reason.
Which is really not healthy for Lemmy in the long run, but that’s a whole other discussion to be had.
It’s a fundamental flaw of the vote system. Downvotes are just an “I disagree/I don’t like that/Boo!” button.
It’s a fundamental flaw of the vote system. Downvotes are just an “I disagree/I don’t like that/Boo!” button.
It’s not so much the button itself, but how it’s used, which is the problem.
When it’s used as a weapon to attack someone, and not just for disagreeing with what they’re saying, is what I’m speaking towards. That irresponsible use of the button. That’s not healthy for Lemmy.
Granted that button press, even when used responsibly, can mean different things two different people, which I think is what you were speaking towards.
I say that the way it is being used is an inevitable result of its existence; a downvote button will always turn out this way. I don’t think you can have downvotes without it turning into an “I disagree/I don’t like that/Boo!” button. Hence, a fundamental flaw of the system.
Well yeah, the problem is a large portion of tradesmen are often misguided or just wrong on like every topic in the first place. My experience with welders and specific types of electricians, for example, is mostly filled with extremely misogynist people who take pride in ignorance. They aren’t very reliable for opinions on education or even common sense. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all tradesmen by any means, but those who aren’t like this are likely to get strongarmed into acting the same or just get bullied out of the field. Like these are professions where employers will decide to not hire you based on the vehicle you drive, you have to conform to this “culture” of theirs in order to be taken seriously.
Something which doesn’t really apply to “lower” skill welders, but I’ve heard from some “higher” skill (pipe/aerospace) welders, is complaints about not being able to do basic arithmetic&algebra or understand trigonometry… I’m not ripping on them, but they’ve seemingly had a lot of annoying situations and wasted a lot of time because they don’t know multiplication well, and don’t understand the logic behind the mathematics that they frequently encounter in their job. Sure, a lot of times the mathematics in trades can just be measuring and reading schematics and nothing else, but some work needs that kind of education and most tradesmen just seem to not have it.
Other types of education involved with communication, psychology, sociology, etc. can be extremely important for these professions, even if they don’t affect the manual labour itself. A job is usually a lot more than just doing the work you were tasked to do, you have to actually discuss with people, and a lot of tradesmen completely lack skills in that department to the point it frequently causes issues…
I teach in an electrical apprenticeship and I don’t find that, students are eager to know more. What I do find is that my students are undereducated in logic and critical thinking skills. I get a lot of “can you just make me a checklist I can follow.”
I get a lot of “can you just make me a checklist I can follow.”
I’m teaching computer networking and this hits the nail on the head. My students are plenty willing to learn answers to multiple choice questions. However, it is like pulling teeth trying to give them anything even slightly open ended. Sorry, at your real job the boss isn’t going to come up to you in a panic and say “the network went down, which of these 4 answers is the reason?”
Troubleshooting, researching, and having curiosity are all important in this field. I’m having difficulty getting them to see that, or care.
Troubleshooting, researching, and having curiosity are all important in this field.
Me and my millenial siblings went to good schools, college, etc, but nothing at school seemed to encourage these things. In school it felt like a lot of tricks on how to be successful on multiple choice and short essay tests.
We were all typically ahead of our peers I think because at home we were taught art and handywork, how to research and solve problems on our own, how to think critically and be curious from a young age.
Among my cohort it seemed like the arts and creativity were seen as totally separate from technical work like programming. But some of the most successful people I’ve known in the computer science field have been very artistic as well. There are skills you learn outside of the typical ‘hard science’ curriculum that seem neglected.
Could this result in accreditation being pulled, which could make federal student financial assistance unavailable?
If it doesn’t, it should.
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.
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.
Can we stop pretending we’re shocked? Please? Not in a resigned way, not like we’re just gonna let this new garbage happen. But let’s stop pretending Florida and Texas are normal. Like, at all.
And by “us” of course I’m referring to the corporate news media. Seriously, stop building up fascism. Kthx.
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, 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.
