Educators believe training students to think critically involves lessons that dive deep to explore all sides of the issue. However, a recent rule passed by the State Board of Education restricts what students can be exposed to. This type of censorship hurts students and educators alike. For this month’s episode of Educating from the Heart, we sat down with Megan Young, a high school English teacher in St. Johns County to talk about the new rule impacts teaching and learning in her classroom.
Episode 10 Show Notes:
Guest
Show Resources
Works Mentioned
Transcript
Guest Megan Young, English Teacher, St. Johns County Resources
Florida Statute 1003.42 Required Instruction Florida State Board of Education Rule 6A-1.094124 on required instruction 1860 Florida census map Ocoee on Fire: The 1920 Election Day Massacre Sen. Bracy's Push for College Scholarships and a Feature Film on the Ocoee Massacre of 1920 Gets Funded (Apopka Voice) The Truth Laid Bare: Lessons from the Ocoee Massacre (Pegasus, The Magazine of the University of Central Florida) Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex Justice at Last: Brevard School Board Acknowledges Unjust Firing of Civil Rights Leaders (Florida Today) Florida Education Association letter urging Brevard County Schools to adopt resolution recognizing Harry and Harriette Moore as teachers emeritus Photo of the Moores' house after the bombing
Works Mentioned
Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. No Man is an Island by John Donne Anthem by Ayn Rand
Transcript [00:00:00]FEA President Andrew Spar: Hi, this is FEA President Andrew Spar. To stay on top of all the latest news and issues impacting our public schools. Be sure to follow FEA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For more information on this podcast visit FEAweb.org/podcast.
[00:00:17]Sharon Nesvig, Announcer: You're listening to educating from the heart. Thank you for joining our lively conversations with teachers, support professionals, parents and students, as they share issues that matter most in our public schools. Here are your hosts, Tina Dunbar and Luke Flynt.
[00:00:43] Luke Flynt, Host: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Those are words that all school children learn when studying the history of our nation's founding, but those words have a complicated history and students are right to have questions about them.
Even at the time they were written those words certainly did not apply to all men, and forget about them applying to women. Let's consider just some facts from Florida history. The 1860 Florida census shows that 44% of the entire state population was enslaved. Fast forward 60 years, and on November 2nd, 1920, 50 African Americans were killed, and the entire black population of Ocoee was forced to leave the town simply for trying to exercise their right to vote. Three decades after that on Christmas day, 1951, the home of Harry and Harriet Moore was fire bombed, and they both lost their lives. They were targeted because they were organizing their community to ensure equitable education for black students and equitable pay for black teachers. Their perpetrators were never charged, much less convicted.
And all this and the country that was founded on the idea that all men have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
[00:02:20] Tina Dunbar, Host: Well, Luke, we all know the tension between the word is found in the founding documents, and the reality of life in America still exists today. A good example occurred over this past summer. We saw the state board of education pass a new rule relating to the teaching of American history, that many educators fear will have a chilling effect on instruction. While it's quite common for the state board to pass rules on what must be taugh...