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South Florida educator who helped write Black history curriculum says state should make changes

‘We should listen’ to concerned Floridians, he says

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – There is a new twist in the controversial curriculum changes to Florida’s Black history studies ahead of the upcoming school year.

An educator who helped write that course believes the state should have a do-over.

South Florida history teacher Roberto Fernandez is one of 13 people who wrote the new state curriculum.

He is the first — and only one — to publicly say it needs to change.

In his letter to Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Fernandez wrote, “When Floridians express apprehension about teaching the standards because they feel that this will make them ‘lie to the kids,’ we should listen.”

Fernandez is the first workgroup member to give legitimacy to the angry public outcry that lessons fail to convey the human atrocity of Florida’s racist past.

July Perry was one of the African Americans who was killed in the Ocoee massacre in 1920.

The massacre, in the standards, is in instruction about violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.

Few have been more critical of the new standards than South Florida historian Marvin Dunn, who joined “This Week in South Florida” from the sites of racist massacres a century ago.

“These teachers are here to learn the truth so that they don’t pass on the lies that the state standards now want them to teach,” Dunn said.

Fernandez, in his letter, called the workgroup an honor and privilege, though he asks to reconvene it to improve.

Dunn was asked if he would advocate for that.

“No!” he said. “Go back and make it better, but don’t use those stooges, don’t use those handpicked Republican extremists.”


About the Author
Glenna Milberg headshot

Glenna Milberg joined Local 10 News in September 1999 to report on South Florida's top stories and community issues. She also serves as co-host on Local 10's public affairs broadcast, "This Week in South Florida."

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