In the age of constantly circulating Instagram infographics and updated news feeds, the threshold of what not to show, and in turn not to know, has entered a realignment period. New classes are redefining education, but now so may government interference.
After releasing a basic curriculum for a new AP African American Studies course in the first week of February, the College Board received strong criticism from Florida governor Ron DeSantis about “woke ideology.”
According to the Florida governor, the AP African American Studies course “lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law [FL HB 7].” His main motivator for condemning the course was its mentions of “queer theory” and “controversial topics,” claiming that the course contents skew to the political left and ignore conservative ideology.
DeSantis’s views have raised concerns among educators and activists nationwide, fearing his statements could be used to promote laws that censor discussions of systemic racism and other “hard history” topics.
He said the course would “teach kids to hate their country and to hate each other” and “promote Critical Race Theory.” Critics of DeSantis’s ideas argue that AP African American Studies is an essential tool for promoting diversity and inclusion in the American school system, especially after years of neglect.
The course was created as an in-depth examination of Black Americans throughout U.S. history, from their contributions to society to the challenges they continue to overcome. The course is part of efforts to address the historical erasure of African Americans from standard humanities curriculums.
While many large news stations covered the initial story of the College Board’s reaction to DeSantis’s comments, the alleged change of curriculum in order to appease the Governor and the Florida Department of Education, the following saga was left only for interested parties to dig into.
After initial media buzz had died down, the College Board responded specifically to the New York Times on Feb. 1, with a short blurb titled, “How The New York Times Got It Wrong on AP African American Studies.”
While claiming that they “encourage everyone to read the [current] framework,” when any average internet user attempted to find more information, they were stumped. While the current curriculum framework is easily accessible online through the links on their article, the main questions and discussions are changed from the previous version to the current.
Almost every news network has no original copy linked, however; the Miami Herald had the version of the course no one could seem to find. The link takes a reader to a slightly tilted photocopy of a February 2022 version of the class’s curriculum.
After comparing the two copies of the curriculum, names, the center of the outrage of the public, were gone from the second version. The original curriculum has Black scholars, figures, and more importantly, the “lived experience,” as the New York Times says, highlighted throughout topics and the entire curriculum, while the most recent copy has moved topics like the Black queer experience and intersectionality to be optional research projects.
Figures including author and activist bell hooks, whose works discuss race, feminism and class, Yale Professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Roderick Ferguson, and civil rights advocate Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, who is also a scholar of critical race theory, were removed entirely.
Ten days after their previous article, the College Board posted an addition to the topic titled, “Our commitment to AP African American Studies, the scholars, and the field.” This writing attempted to cut any ties with the Florida Department of Education saying, “We have made the mistake of treating FDOE with the courtesy we always accord to an education agency, but they have instead exploited this courtesy for their political agenda.” While this article may have successfully distanced the organization from leadership in Florida, it is assumed that the curriculum will not change to re-include figures previously removed.
While East does not yet offer an AP African American Studies course, an Honors African American Seminar course is taught by history teacher Deborah Yamauchi.
“We should be realistic about what the College Board’s goal is, and it’s at least partly to make money. …I see value in advanced placement classes; I’ve taught many. But I wouldn’t be surprised if decisions made either now or in the past were made on [the basis of] selling more AP classes,” Yamauchi said.
East’s Honors African American Seminar course is often thought to be an unknown during class registration due to undependable enrollment numbers, but Yamauchi finds it valuable to offer more specialized classes to represent all students.
“I’ve taught a lot of hard history, with complicated, loaded topics, like racism, for example…[but] I don’t know how you could teach any history course without teaching about women or minorities,” Yamauchi said. “Students are the real losers when adults engage in this kind of political partisanship over education.”
DeSantis is currently calling for the possible removal of all AP Courses taught in Florida. If other states with similar responses to the AP African American Studies course follow this example, education, College Board and AP classes will change drastically for millions of high school students.
