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Furore over Florida's new education curriculum which teaches slavery helped Black Americans
Middle school students are required to learn “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Florida administration has drawn the ire of people over its new education standards which teach school children that Black Americans benefited from slavery. On Wednesday, around 100 activists protested against the new standards, in Miami.
According to the Florida’s newly introduced education standards for African American history, middle school students are required to learn “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
The curriculum change comes amid Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' rhetoric against so-called 'woke' ideology. Notably, DeSantis who is campaigning for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has waged an ideological war over the penetration of wokism in American society.
DeSantis has also prohibited instruction in schools that suggests anyone is privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin color.
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During a recent campaign program, DeSantis snubbed the noise around the new education standards in Florida and supported the curriculum.
“They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” he told reporters last month.
Meanwhile, a teacher named Mayade Ersoff who is white and teaches middle school students in Florida, criticised the new standards and labelled them as "atrocious. She also highlighted the ills of slavery.
“These standards are atrocious. There are no benefits (to slavery). There are no benefits to being grabbed from your home, shackled on boats, being lynched, being beaten. Not allowed to read and write. And treated like a piece of property,” said Ersoff as quoted by CNN.
A woman named Mildred Slocum who is grandparent of a school student told CNN: "I don’t care how they address it, how they put it, how they word it, there will never be a benefit for anybody to be put through the cruelty and everything that they put (slaves) through.
