Robert Jensen writes in CommonDreams how a new Florida law undermines critical thinking in schools.
One way to measure the fears of people in power is by the intensity of their quest for certainty and control over knowledge. By that standard, the members of the Florida Legislature marked themselves as the folks most terrified of history in the United States when last month they took bold action to become the first state to outlaw historical interpretation in public schools. In other words, Florida has officially replaced the study of history with the imposition of dogma and effectively outlawed critical thinking….
So, as part of an education bill signed into law by Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida has declared that “American history shall be viewed as factual, not as constructed.”
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Well, it won’t be the first time Jeb Bush has tried to repress critical inquiry. He tried to erase Florida’s past (but failed).