Florida sticks by social studies standard teaching ‘benefit’ of slavery

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The Florida Board of Education approved several tweaks Wednesday to the state’s standards for teaching social studies, but left intact controversial pieces on Black history that sparked widespread backlash last year.

The updated standards include new required instruction surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks and the history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, as well as several other more subtle changes. Opponents, though, including Florida’s largest teachers union and free speech advocates, slammed the state for sticking by its “warped” telling of Black history.

Black history: Florida’s new teaching standards include the same language that scored national blowback last year for requiring middle school students to learn “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Critics, including Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), urged the state to reconsider that language. And others criticized the state’s phrasing on crucial lessons surrounding the 1920 Ocoee massacre and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which are labeled as violence perpetrated “against and by” African Americans.