- When college students walk on a university's campus there's a wealth of knowledge waiting for them. However, some may be unprepared for a particular subject.
- Two of our neighbors who are experts on African American History about the different ways they're trying to get more knowledge into schools from Kindergarten to College.
- Watch video to see how the curriculum will be taught despite the current law.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's been about two years since Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law that changes how Black history is taught in schools.
I spoke with two of our neighbors who are experts on African American History about the different ways they're trying to get more knowledge into schools from Kindergarten to College.
When college students walk on a university's campus there's a wealth of knowledge waiting for them.
However, some may be unprepared for a particular subject.
"I start off in my class by just asking some simple African American history questions, and the majority of students don't know what I'm talking about," Larry E. Rivers, a Distinguished Professor of History at FAMU said. "And then I'll say something like, we got a lot of work to do."
Rivers said the foundation of African American history is not being learned early enough. It's why for the last few years he's been advocating with the Teaching Our Own History task force.
You can look on the Florida Department of Education's website which shows you the type of content children should be learning. It includes teaching the history of African peoples before the development of slavery up to the civil rights movement.
But Rivers argued that it's not happening.
"My research suggests that very few counties are teaching African American history," Rivers said after marching with the group to the Capitol this week to deliver an African American History curriculum guide to the Governor's office. "Well, they've got an excellent curriculum guide to use when teaching and students learn."
At Florida State University's Civil Rights Institute Director Ted Ellis has taken his advocacy work to the nation's capitol.
Where he's the Acting Chair for the federal 400 Years of African American History Commission.
"Programmatically, we are responsible for telling that story," Ellis said. "Celebrating that and commemorating and looking forward to the successes, and potential and the opportunities for African Americans here in the United States. That's part of the total fabric of America."
I asked Ellis, "Where does your institute come in, in filling the gaps of the history that some students will never learn due to the current laws?"
"So we're going to look at what has been preserved and accurately archived, and then we need to get out here in this space and find out what others have done," Ellis said.
Ellis said while fights over what history is told happen, there will be those like him sharing it through art and advocacy.
"Bad or good whatever history is, we learn from it," Ellis said. "And we do better that's what we have the capacity to do, you know. So we're constructing a better person at every academic institution."
ABC 27 reached out to Governor Ron DeSantis's office to see if they received the curriculum guide and if they had any comments on it. We have not heard back yet.
