Students at Florida’s 12 public universities will probably be supplied an American historical past class as a substitute of sociology as an possibility within the normal training core curriculum, the state college system’s board of governors introduced Wednesday.
This follows an analogous transfer final week by Florida’s Board of Education, which banned using public funds for range, fairness and inclusion packages in any respect 28 state schools in Florida, in what seems to be one more effort by the Republican-led state to clamp down on training.
The Principles of Sociology course, which college students have been beforehand capable of take to fulfill the core curriculum’s social sciences requirement, will probably be changed by Introductory Survey to 1877. The new possibility gives “a historically accurate account of America’s founding, the horrors of slavery, the resulting Civil War, and the Reconstruction era,” the board of governors stated in a press launch.
Chancellor Ray Rodrigues stated that he was “proud” of the choice, including that he expects the change to have a “positive impact” on college students.
“Florida’s students of our State University System will have the opportunity to learn about the creation and development of our nation as part of the core course options,” Rodrigues stated.
Three members of the board of governors voted in opposition to the change, together with Ashley Bell Barnett, who stated that there’s worth in finding out “the history of some of the various movements, and Marxism and all that are important to look at society today.”
“There is a difference between exposure and indoctrination on how beliefs in the sociology courses are taught,” she stated, in accordance with the Tampa Bay Times.
Meanwhile, the board of training’s choice final week was unanimous.
“Sociology has been hijacked by left-wing activists and no longer serves its intended purpose as a general knowledge course for students,” Manny Díaz Jr., Florida’s commissioner of training, wrote final month on social media.
Under the management of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), “Florida’s higher education system will focus on preparing students for high-demand, high-wage jobs, not woke ideology,” Díaz added.
The American Sociological Association stated that it was “outraged” by Wednesday’s announcement, pointing to an absence of proof supporting the transfer.
“This decision seems to be coming not from an informed perspective, but rather from a gross misunderstanding of sociology as an illegitimate discipline driven by ‘radical’ and ‘woke’ ideology,” the skilled affiliation stated in assertion shared with HuffPost.
“To the contrary, sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers,” it added.
Florida is house to the nation’s second-largest public college system, with over 430,000 college students.
