Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution

[Lonestarblue]

71. More fascists. No education or teaching experience required, just repeat Republican propaganda.

Florida students are being seriously shortchanged with this stupidity. Schools in blue states that are finding it difficult to hire enough teachers should go on recruiting campaigns to Florida. With help paying moving expenses, I suspect they might be able to fill their vacancies with fed-up Florida teachers. I think it was Arizona that was recruiting teachers from the Philippines.

The Republican dumbing down of US education continues. According to Pew Research:

“The most recent PISA results, from 2015, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, the U.S. ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.”
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/

Republicans will argue that their removal of books from classrooms and libraries has nothing to do with science and math, but they’re wrong. Some of the books that will be removed will include any that mention of climate warming or alternative energy. And they may get around to demanding that biology books no longer illustrate the human body or have any mention of sexual organs. Eventually, textbooks will have to contain fake photos showing fetal development, as well as anti-abortion propaganda spewed by right-wing evangelicals. And let me not forget the topic of evolution, which evangelicals have been trying to get rid of for decades. Earth science may be required to teach the Biblical version of Earth’s age rather than the facts that contradict the Bible. And of course there were no humans on Earth before Adam and Eve.

Math requires reading to understand how to apply mathematical concepts, and denying children the opportunity to read books that interest them results in fewer kids interested in reading at all. Teachers have also been trying to introduce more diversity of writers in their classrooms so that students see that ideas and value come from writers with many different ethnicities and experiences. Minority writers will be banned as teaching CRT. Literature will return to a curriculum based only dead white guys, as if only white male ideas are important.

This whole movement is so discouraging because people with children are allowing and encouraging Republicans to deny their children and all children in a state a well-rounded education.