photo credit: Audrey Selsor
Are banning topics from being taught in schools against freedom of speech or teaching biased viewpoints? In recent years, controversy has surfaced about whether specific topics are appropriate to be discussed in a school setting. Many citizens feel strongly one way or another about the concept of teaching or talking about topics such as critical race theory, certain parts of history and gender identity in schools.
In recent months, states throughout the country have decided to implement laws banning and restricting educators from teaching these topics. This decision has caused a lot of conversation around what should or should not be taught in a school setting, along with what actions other states and school districts should be taking for their schools.
Florida is one of the states that has recently decided to implement laws banning educators from teaching certain subjects in schools. Due to these new laws, certain Advanced Placement courses, including other content, are no longer allowed to be offered as a course for students in this area.
At minimum, nine school districts in Florida will not be offering Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology as a course at their high schools this year. This is due to the conflict the course has had with new state laws, according to The Hill. The laws in question include bans and restrictions on topics being taught in schools such as race and gender Identity. These changes have also caused many teachers to be reluctant to teach the course in Florida because of the controversy the course has had lately.
However, this course isn’t the only change in social studies curriculums in Florida. In addition to the AP Psychology ban and reversal, the Florida Board of Education changed the standard of black history education and is looking to block the implementation of AP African American Studies.
The AP African American Studies course was also dropped by the Arkansas Department of Education. The reasoning behind scrapping the course was that it contains possible elements of Critical Race Theory as well as indoctrination, according to NPR.
Another addition to Florida’s history curriculum has been the endorsement of PragerU, a nonprofit media organization that promotes conservative viewpoints, as an educational resource by the state board of education.
However, Florida isn’t the only state implementing this addition to their education department. Oklahoma announced it would also be incorporating PragerU into their state educational resource list, according to The Hill.
PragerU touches on many topics taught in schools such as American History, Economics, the U.S. Government, and more. The organization has content for students ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade and up.
The concern with the nonprofit media organization is that it is too biased to be a reliable source of information to teach a wide range of students, according to the Hill.
These states making these vast changes, specifically Florida, have raised a lot of conflict and criticism regarding what is appropriate and acceptable to be banned or taught in schools. It also raised the concern of at what point legislation begins promoting personal beliefs and political views. One of the groups that has the most to say and is largely affected by these new changes are teachers.
The new history standards have raised concerns for teachers at the school such as World History and AP Psychology Teacher Brooke Sandy.
“As an educator in general, I find it dangerous. The ‘resources’ of PragerU are not vetted or academically grounded. The fact that these materials are now being offered as legitimate curriculum is harmful,” Sandy said.
Sandy shares the same concerns as teachers throughout the nation. Many of whom are living in Florida and therefore are either forced to ignore their concerns and continue teaching blindly or give up their career in their residential state and find other options.
“I have many friends and colleagues who are genuinely afraid,” Arian Dineen said, a middle school teacher from Stuart Florida. These teachers are afraid of being accused of teaching certain topics, such as critical race theory, that are now banned or restricted in Florida, according to an article by the Guardian.
Though teachers are greatly affected by the new standards, past AP Psychology students like junior Ananya Tanjavur express their concerns for the growing lack of availability for the course.
“It’s just upsetting because the class is beneficial since it gives insight into your brain and society. For students not to have access or be less encouraged to take the class sucks,” Tanjavur said.
With so much discontent over the new curriculums, questions are quickly arising. The main purpose of the new education standards in Florida is to follow the government’s more conservative approach to learning and their legislation on LGBTQ+ education.
“The controversy over AP Psychology in Florida arose because of the Parental Rights Legislation Bill passed in Florida and over the ability of teachers to instruct students on issues of sex and gender,” AP Psychology teacher Jamie Paoloni said. “In the AP Psychology unit on development, we cover a number of developmental topics, and that includes defining the terms, sex, gender and gender typing and discussing the nature verses nurture debate in psychology, and how that may apply to various developmental topics.”
Though many people like Sandy and Tanjavur are frustrated with both the new curriculum and the reasoning behind it, there are also large groups of people in favor of it. Many conservative leaning citizens and politicians such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are both proud proponents and supporters of the new curriculum standards.
DeSantis expressed that his main concern about AP African American Studies is the addition of queer black history. “Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids. And so, when you look to see they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that’s a political agenda,” DeSantis said, according to PBS.
Citizens with similar viewpoints as DeSantis argue that parents should play a role in what is being taught to their children. They are concerned that some topics are not appropriate and would like to be informed about what is being taught to their kids.
“Parental rights do not cease to exist at the classroom door and many parents do not wish to co-parent with their school district. Parents would like public schools to focus on ELA, math, science and history and leave the rest to parents. We are a very diverse community with diverse family values that should be considered and respected by our local school board leaders when determining curriculum.
“I am an advocate for transparency of curriculum, allowing parents to have full access to review what is taught to their children and request an alternative lesson if they feel the content could be harmful to their child or violate their First Amendment freedoms in any way,” said former Olentangy School board candidate and parent Jennifer Feucht said.
There is a lot of uncertainty around these new curriculums, especially with which states will follow Florida, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Though one thing is for sure, there will continue to be numerous news and headlines regarding these educational debates in the future.
As news and headlines keep coming out about this conversation, a topic that will most likely be brought up is Critical Race Theory, also known as CRT. This topic is one of the most prominent topics that comes up when discussing what topics should be taught in schools.
While CRT is one of the largest topics talked about, much of the population of the United States doesn’t actually know what CRT means. Studies show that seven out of 10 U.S. residents are unable to describe what CRT is, according to Northeastern Global News.
The first step into understanding what CRT is, is to examine what a critical theory is.
“All critical theories are intense examinations of any given subject,” AP Government Teacher John Carmichael said. “It’s just a way of systemically looking at the subject that typically is done at the graduate or doctoral level.”
With this definition in mind, adding race to the phrase should explain the definition at its best. CRT is the idea that race is a social construct, and that racism is more than just interactions between people; it is built into our very own legal systems.
“CRT is controversial because it is something that is difficult to face as a society because you’re having to look at societal and governmental decisions that have impacted demographic groups within the population,” Carmichael said.
The main argument of CRT in public education is the concern of if it should be taught to students. The debate is mostly two sided, with each side of the American political spectrum tending to lean one way.
On one hand, many Republicans view CRT and teaching the subject as a way to make white people feel like they are all inherently racist, according to PBS Newshour.
Many citizens with more conservative viewpoints generally agree that teaching CRT at a highschool level is not appropriate.
“There are significant disagreements even among education experts about the precise definition of CRT as well as how its tenets should impact K-12 education efforts. The basic tenets of CRT emerged from a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is a complicated subject and might be better explored at the college level,” Feucht said.
But, on the other side of the spectrum, many see that CRT is important to teach in schools to learn from Americans’ mistakes, in order to prevent more similar discrimination in the future.
“In my opinion, trying to block the teachings of America’s slave-holding past and racist roots is censorship,” senior Iniyal Ramamoorthy said. “Students must be taught about the injustices carried out by America to not only see how far our society has come but to also ensure those things never happen again.
While the main argument of CRT floating around in the media now is the teaching of the theory in schools, the theory does not have a very large presence in the school, or any other in the district.
“As sad as it is, many kids my age in high school have no clue what critical race theory even is, at least in my experience,” Ramamoorthy said. “Because of this, I don’t find students debating this topic with other students regularly.”
According to Carmichael, CRT is not being taught in the Olentangy School district, which means that there is really no effect on students, or teachers in the school. “It certainly is politically talked about in the news, but there’s really no application; there’s nothing to stop or start teaching,” he said.
And while there may be no direct effects of CRT in the high school, or other schools in the district, there are still some parents or members of the district that take their thoughts on the theory to the Olentangy Board of Education.
“I will say that a lot of these conversations are happening at school board meetings, specifically between parents and school officials. Many parents have very strong opinions on the teaching of CRT to their children in schools, and many of them take their concerns up with school board members. So although I don’t see as many students debating this issue as I would like, I do know that very convincing parents do take up many of these issues with higher ups in our district,” Ramamoorthy said.
With this large debate engulfing national and local news, it is important to remember that this theory and argument is complex and requires one to view it from all angles of the argument. This is a debate that will continue for years and is not one that will come to one simple conclusion.
Another very complex argument is how gender, gender identity, and other related topics should be approached in a school setting. Many citizens believe that topics in relation to gender should not be discussed or taught in schools while others may disagree. This topic of conversation is another issue that Florida has decided to address by making a law banning and restricting topics related to gender and gender identity. Many people have responded to the bill very differently, either in support or in retaliation.
Thousands of students across Florida participated in a walkout last April protesting their rapidly changing education policies. Students from Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando and Sarasota all left class with one common goal; to stand up to their Gov. Ron DeSantis, and his policies concerning higher education.
While it may seem surprising, these kids from Florida have not been the only ones struggling with people in authority making controversial decisions regarding school and education. In some places, classes are being revoked, new bills are being passed and new policies are being introduced.
One of the more recent bills that was passed in May 2023, by DeSantis, was the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Expansion. This bill expands on the measure by forbidding classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades, K-12 according to people.com.
“I mean look how students are responding: they don’t feel included, and it is so important that every student feels included and every student feels safe,” Principal, Monica Asher, said about the Florida bill. “If there is something that makes students not feel safe and not feel like they belong, I don’t know how it could be beneficial.”
Students all over social media have been posting about this bill and how it makes them feel. Many say that it is overstepping boundaries and promoting homophobia, while others argue it just gives parents more control over their child’s education.
56 percent of LGBTQ+ parents have considered moving out of Florida due to the bill’s passage. Many are concerned that the bill will not only result in restricted or nonexistent education about the diverse sexual and gender identities, but it will result in a hostile school climate for LGBTQ educators, students, and families because it suggests that something is wrong with LGBTQ identities, according to williamsinstitute.law.
“The more people who are aware of different gender expression and gender identities would allow people to be more open and accepting. It would cause people to reflect on their own gender identity and how they want to represent themselves. Maybe even making them more willing to express themselves in a deeper, more authentic manner,” English Teacher M. Williams said.
During a press conference ahead of signing the law, DeSantis said teaching kindergarten-aged kids that “they can be whatever they want to be” was “inappropriate” for children, according to npr.org.
Many other people also have similar viewpoints as DeSantis and believe that teaching kids about gender and gender related topics is inappropriate in a school setting.
“The correct title of the bill from Florida is “Parental Rights in Education”. Opponents framed this bill as,“The Don’t Say Gay Bill,” in their efforts to defeat this bill.The bill states,“classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” Feucht said.
Generally, citizens with this view point, would like a say in what is being taught to their kids in school. A lot of these topics that they are uncomfortable with are usually complex societal issues that they believe should be talked about in higher education, or outside of a school setting.
“I am an advocate for parental rights in education and believe that parents deserve to be the largest voice in their own child’s life and shaping of their education. Many parents and taxpayers, who support their local school districts, are opposed to introducing these topics at such a young age. Children as young as kindergarten typically do not have the cognitive skill set to digest instruction focused on complicated sexual topics regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.
“These young learners believe in things such as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy and are not equipped cognitively to tackle more advanced concepts such as this. School policy should support education efforts that are age appropriate, support state standards and teach treating all peers with kindness and inclusivity,” Feucht said.
On the other side of the argument, these topics that are deemed as “inappropriate” for kids are thought of as basic rights to others.
“A lot of people mix up different terms. Sex, sexual preference, gender identity, and gender expression are all four different things. For example, sex is what you’re born with, and sexual preference is who you like. Those are both very personal things and very inner things, compared to gender which is more of a social construct. Essentially, gender identity is how we feel, and then gender expression is what you show to others. Where sexuality is very personal, gender is more social and more how you express yourself when you interact with other people,” Williams said.
The bill not only has ideas on teaching LGBTQ+ ideas in the classroom but also in other areas of schools. Transgender students’ bathroom access at school has been restricted as well as clarifying to teachers that teachers don’t have to use pronouns that align with trans students’ identities.
“The last thing I want to do is tell a student that their identity or who they are as a person isn’t important to me. There’s one way to shut somebody down and that is by saying ‘Hey, I recognize this is part of you but I’m not willing to talk to you about it or see you in a compassionate way.’ That would be pretty awful,” Asher said.
The controversy surrounding whether these topics should be taught in schools causes a reason to believe that this will be a topic frequently discussed in the future. There is a lot of uncertainty with what school districts and states will start to implement in their schools. Some might follow what Florida has done, while others might not change anything at all. However, as time goes on, citizens will see how this argument affects schools across the country and the students that are a part of them.
