The Campaign that Wasn't Put Into Play - Part III

The short 'guest editorial' below was the third in a series of hard-hitting articles that were never sent to Florida newspapers. They are provided here as an insight into the frustrations Florida's social studies educators felt after a non-productive twenty year campaign to have the Florida legislature address the state's crisis in public education. They are posted here as ways that today's social studies educators might utilize the print media -- in less strident ways perhaps -- to keep all citizens apprized of the status of social studies education in our schools. The idea would be to submit short, focused, REPEATED letters to the editor or postings to newspaper blogs on the 'current crisis' in Florida's public schools.

Florida’s Sad State of Civic Education – Part III

Florida’s students come increasingly from a wide range of diverse backgrounds. In the near future whites Anglos will make up an increasing minority of students in our schools. Many of the new arrivals come from nations without strong republican or democratic traditions. Indeed, the spirit of revolution might be stronger than a deep understanding of republican institutions. Knowing this, it was with some shock that Florida’s civic educators watched in horror as elites in the legislature two years ago eviscerated a core of civic courses such as American History and American Government as graduation requirements for all students. More surprising was the fact they had to fight an uphill battle to restore these courses in last year’s session. In light of Florida’s rapidly changing demographics and its mania for assessing such important knowledge as the life cycle of a tadpole, the correct use of a comma vs. semi-colon, or how to correctly use a possessive apostrophe – such acts will ultimately contribute to national suicide. We are no longer bound together by a common religion, heritage nor even perhaps a common language. When faced with massive immigration in the 1920s the nation’s schools decisively conducted a campaign to teach the recent arrivals what it meant to be an American citizen. No such campaign exists today, nor do educational elites in the state legislature or D.O.E. think it even advisable to have students demonstrate their degree of civic understanding when being considered for promotion from one grade level to the next. A bill to do just that and which has had four separate unanimous votes in the legislature was bottled up in committee last year to deliberately prevent it from seeing the light of day. We have been continually showing how Florida has designed the worst civic education program in the nation. It’s time for a change. Our future is at stake. To help, contact Jack Bovee at 369-1397.

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