PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – The backlash became a demand last week for the Florida Department of Education to re-think and re-do parts of the new African American history standards that led to national debate.
With much of the focus on just one line in the 40 pages of the curriculum, that benchmarks “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Critics erupted at the possibility students would be taught there was an upside to the American atrocity of slavery.
The Department of Education doubled down last week, insisting that is not what the curriculum says and not what it does.
“This has been interpreted to mean slaves benefited from slavery and that is not the standard at all,” said John Duebel, Social Studies Director for the Florida Department of Education. “What this is saying is this is not the story simply of victims who withered in the face of oppression, but rather the story of a resilient people who responded to their oppressors in an adaptive manner utilizing every resource at their disposal to resist the inhumane nature of the bondage they were in.”
Duebel was attempting to explain or clarify the intent at a summer seminar on all the new standards held in Miami-Dade last week.
Local 10 News spoke to a number of teachers there who weighed in with varying perspectives, as you might expect in this state at this moment.
Today we get first hand perspective from one of the 13 people in the work group who wrote the standards.
Dr. William Allen is Emeritus Dean and Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University, former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights appointed by former president Reagan and volunteer on that work group.
Allen was one of the 13 people in the work group who wrote the standards. He joined This Week in South Florida host Glenna Milberg to discuss, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.