The Florida State Board of Education adopted new civics and Holocaust education standards for Florida’s public schools that had been pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The new social-studies standards, which were adopted on July 14, spell out what students should learn about civics and the Holocaust in their classes from kindergarten to 12th grade. The revised civics standards will require public-school students to “study primary source documents to understand the philosophical underpinnings of the American Republic and the root cause of American exceptionalism.”
Florida has required that students be taught about the Holocaust since 1994, yet there were no details on the material to be covered and what was considered age-appropriate. The new standards aim to provide that blueprint, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
“We want to make sure our students understand the evils of the Holocaust. You see people throughout the world try to diminish or even reject that the Holocaust even happened,” said DeSantis.
Still, some have criticized the new standards, including the state’s own Holocaust-education task force, for failing to connect the singular horror of the Holocaust to broader lessons about contemporary times, wrote the Sentinel.
Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder and president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), helped develop the new curriculum and praised its passage. “These standards are not only groundbreaking but historical as well,” she said in a statement.
“The newly revised civics standards will ensure that children in Florida know the Judeo-Christian foundations of the birth of this incredible nation. [The governor] has sent a resounding message loud and clear that he will not tolerate revisionist history, anti-Semitic content or Holocaust revisionism in Florida classrooms.”
Under Cardoza-Moore’s direction, in 2018 PJTN launched a major national campaign, “Taking Back America’s Children,” aimed at educating, motivating and activating concerned Americans on the indoctrination happening in U.S. education.
“Not to speak up and push back means we face the possibility of losing our next generation of leadership for our nation—our children,” stated Cardoza-Moore.
DeSantis has made improving civics education a core priority since he took office.
“We’ve got to do a much better job teaching people about the Constitution, the bill of rights, all these important things,” he said. “I’m excited about what we’re doing.”
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