A month into the new school year, teachers, parents and students in Florida are already experiencing state changes to public school curricula through new state civics standards and education legislation.

To improve the civic literacy of Florida students, Gov. Ron DeSantis approved and allocated $106 million for the Civic Literacy Excellence Initiative last July, but the curriculum changes will not be implemented until the 2023-2024 school year. not fully implemented until

“Florida leads the nation in civics education, with nearly 70% of our students being African American, Hispanic, and students from economically disadvantaged families achieving civic proficiency, with We are leading the way in improving grades,” School Board Manny Diaz Jr. said at a press conference. this summer.

To familiarize teachers with the revised civics and government standardized curriculum in K-12 public schools and increase their knowledge of the content, the Florida Department of Education conducted civics training in Davie, Jacksonville, Tampa, Pensacola, and Fort Myers. Hosted professional learning training. 3 days.

Justin Vogel, a 45-year-old teacher at Creekside High School, attended a training session in Jacksonville in June.

The overall theme of the conference was politically biased, with several sessions blatantly promoting conservative political messages.

“What they did was feel the politicization of the classroom and attend political conferences,” Vogel said.

Training participants heard three conservative keynote speakers, attended cohort breakout sessions, and received two free books.

He said he was worried about oversimplifying history and stifling critical thinking because students were taught what to think, not how to think.

“When you do research or look at our history, there are many perspectives to look at, so it’s not a good idea to replace yours with the truth and ignore others,” Vogel says. said.

He said there was a problem with one of the presentation slides, which seemed to convince attendees that the Founding Fathers collectively sought to abolish slavery. The intention of the meeting was clear. FDOE wants teachers to teach an academically dishonest view of history, he said.

“If you’re teaching honestly and you’re teaching multiple perspectives, you can get kicked out.”

He said teachers should not be political weapons. Instead, we are responsible for providing a fertile ground for thinking.

Mr. Vogel doesn’t want the meeting to be cancelled, he wants it to improve evenly.

Terra Gouge, 51, a middle school science and American history teacher at St. Catherine’s Catholic School in Sebring, said the initiative is aimed at shielding students from the negative history of America.

“You can’t wash everything away,” Gouge said. “When we standardize it to that level, we are less inclined to learn from the past.”

She believes there are appropriate ways of presenting certain subjects, but academic honesty should not be sacrificed.

“It puts students at a disadvantage because it doesn’t give them a wider view of the world,” she said.

Gouge teaches in a private school, but she said she has seen many public teachers quit teaching and turn to side jobs out of frustration.

“There’s a lot of concern that they’re almost afraid to even teach because they seem so micromanaged,” she said.

Jordan Marlowe, 45, who primarily teaches English and history at Newbury High School and serves as mayor of Newbury, echoed Gouge’s thinking.

“One aspect of my profession that I manage is developing curriculum,” he said.

If the state’s goal is to teach that some perspectives are perfect and others are doomed to failure, it’s not education, he said.

Marlowe said states should focus resources on improving student behavior and reducing class sizes.

Stephana Ferrell, 40-year-old parent of two elementary school-age children and co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, speaks out against training and Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and “Stop WOKE Act” doing. It came into effect on July 1st.

Public schools foster diversity of thought and critical thinking skills, but recently passed education bills are hindering that, she said.

“Indoctrination only happens when information is hidden to support a chosen story,” she said. ”

Through her organization, she helped track over 600 book removal attempts over the past year.

She said HB 1467 requires media professionals to receive additional training to properly purchase and organize book collections in school libraries. This training will not be available to her until January 2023. Until then, there will be no new books on the shelves of school libraries. FDOE also develops and publishes statewide lists of contested or removed books in each school district to coordinate school library collections.

“They are absolutely just sabotaging my kids and censoring my kids,” she said. .”