Florida’s Aggressive Campaign Against Liberalism in Education
Here’s an opinion piece in the New York Times: Florida Could Start Looking a Lot Like Hungary, whose author points out that Ron DeSantis is using his political power to eradicate liberalism in Florida’s public schools as well as its colleges and universities, in much the same way that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban passed a law intended to drive Central European University, a prestigious school founded by a Hungarian refugee, George Soros, out of the country.
What happened in Hungary was protested by free-thinking intellectuals all over the world, but Orban ultimately got his way, and the university was relocated to Vienna. Now, there is a strong conservative, nationalistic, and anti-immigrant influence in the way every young Hungarian is taught, from the time he enters school.
From the New York Times article: Under (Florida’s) House Bill 999, general education core courses couldn’t present a view of American history “contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence,” creating obvious limits on the teaching of subjects like slavery and the Native American genocide. The bill also says that general education courses shouldn’t be based on “unproven, theoretical or exploratory content,” without defining what that means. “State officials would have unfettered discretion to determine which views are ‘theoretical’ and banned from general education courses,” says a statement by the libertarian-leaning Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
In an ironic twist, conservative Americans, whose values once favored limited government, now want government involved in the most intimate parts of their lives. Try to image Reagan-era Republicans demanding to be told what their children must and must not be taught, via book bans and restrictions like those discussed above.
In a related story, soon after I was accepted at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, I learned that the only requirement in terms of coursework was a “freshman seminar.” I chose, of perhaps 40 different options, “Liberal Education at Trinity.” This seemed to be a good bet, given that a liberal art school was what I had chosen in the first place. The summer reading assignment was Plato’s “Protagoras,” aka “Can Virtue Be Taught?”
If present-day conservatives get their way and force us to remake our schools around rigid thinking in general and white supremacy in particular, we will have lost something quite valuable. Critical thinking and the capacity to question authority was highly prized. Now, at least in Florida, it’s on its way to becoming illegal.
