Teachers union, DeSantis disagree on whether slavery had any benefits – By Justin Boggs (Scripps News) / July 24, 2023
New Florida education standards say slaves learned skills that “could be applied to their personal benefit.” Teachers say that is “ahistorical.”
The head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, and other educators decried Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on recent comments involving slavery.
The response comes after Florida’s Board of Education approved a new curriculum for African American history. One of the biggest issues critics have with the curriculum is a section in the state’s summary of the new standards that include instruction on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied to their personal benefit.”
The skills performed by slaves mentioned would include agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing and transportation. The new lesson would be taught to children in grades 6-8.
DeSantis defended the new standards and said last week, “They’re probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life. The reality is all of that is rooted in whatever is factual.”
