African American studies is bogus, victimhood nonsense that means nothing in the real World and won't get you a decent job.
Then they will complain they can't pay their student loans back. Useless degree for people who have no business going to college. It goes with all the other ethnic, gender and social 'science' degrees.
This post was edited 26 seconds after it was posted.
Now, as an AP State Scholar I will chime in with a couple of takeaways:
1. AP credits like this typically only count as elective credits when you go to college. I passed multiple AP courses that amounted to elective credits in college. I had more elective credits than I needed for my major, however, I was still required by my university to take a cross cultural elective, which ended up being the History of Jazz. This requirement didn't really enrich my college experience and provided nothing towards my career. Ironically, had African American Studies been an AP course at the time and had I taken it and passed it, it would have actually filled the cross-cultural requirement that the other courses (like U.S. History) did not.
In hindsight, this requirement was more of a method for the colleges to find work for people with the gender and ethnic studies majors whose real-world prospects were limited at best. Ultimately, these requirements increase the cost of an education while contributing little. Looking back, I would have loved to have taken another finance course instead of the History of Jazz (as it was, I graduated with about 20 more credits than was required for my major).
2. There are no other ethnic American AP classes. No AP Irish American History. No AP Slavic American History. No AP Chinese American History. No AP Latin American History.
3. As noted in #1, it's elective credit. A lot of the classes that people take in college have little bearing on their career. The relevance of some of these courses to employers is they prove that for four years of your life you were responsible enough to show up, on time, take orders and work diligently. In this regard, this course would fulfill that requirement. If such a course motivates those who are historically disengaged in the education system to show up for class, work hard and try to achieve, then it is a win for the education system and should not be discouraged or prohibited.
^ are you paying attention? This is a course that is being proposed, and the DeSantis letter (linked in the article) says "the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value." Whether either of those things is correct is not something that the article gives any information about. Unless you know Florida law and the content of the course, you can't say he's right or wrong. Everything else said on the subject is just stoking racial flames, which is unfortunate.
The Guardian article is poorly written in terms of offering something substantive. It's aimed at getting an emotional rise out of people who are susceptible to that sort of thing.
African American studies is bogus, victimhood nonsense that means nothing in the real World and won't get you a decent job.
Then they will complain they can't pay their student loans back. Useless degree for people who have no business going to college. It goes with all the other ethnic, gender and social 'science' degrees.
This is high school not college degrees. Education is so we have good citizens not so we become polished employees. Get Walmart, Microsoft and JP Morgan to pay for schools instead of taxpayers if you want worker conveyorbelts.
Now, as an AP State Scholar I will chime in with a couple of takeaways:
1. AP credits like this typically only count as elective credits when you go to college. I passed multiple AP courses that amounted to elective credits in college. I had more elective credits than I needed for my major, however, I was still required by my university to take a cross cultural elective, which ended up being the History of Jazz. This requirement didn't really enrich my college experience and provided nothing towards my career. Ironically, had African American Studies been an AP course at the time and had I taken it and passed it, it would have actually filled the cross-cultural requirement that the other courses (like U.S. History) did not.
In hindsight, this requirement was more of a method for the colleges to find work for people with the gender and ethnic studies majors whose real-world prospects were limited at best. Ultimately, these requirements increase the cost of an education while contributing little. Looking back, I would have loved to have taken another finance course instead of the History of Jazz (as it was, I graduated with about 20 more credits than was required for my major).
2. There are no other ethnic American AP classes. No AP Irish American History. No AP Slavic American History. No AP Chinese American History. No AP Latin American History.
3. As noted in #1, it's elective credit. A lot of the classes that people take in college have little bearing on their career. The relevance of some of these courses to employers is they prove that for four years of your life you were responsible enough to show up, on time, take orders and work diligently. In this regard, this course would fulfill that requirement. If such a course motivates those who are historically disengaged in the education system to show up for class, work hard and try to achieve, then it is a win for the education system and should not be discouraged or prohibited.
You might want to check out what's available in the Florida High School curriculum on your #2 chime in takeaway
A well designed AP class would help with college credit. AP classes have usually been offered in front of classes one can take in college, and colleges have many of these courses. It is entirely consistent with current practice to offer an AP course that mimics college classes. AP classes are for good students who can deal with the nuances of controversial theories. I may not agree with quality of work that Hannah-Nikole Jones produces (several retractions and general historical criticism), but like a lot of college material, it is useful to study it.
Florida high schools already offer AP courses in German history, Italian history, and a few other countries and regions, but refuses to offer AP AA history? And this thread is already filled with racist nonsense. Brojos got to so proud of how their site has devolved into this utter BS.
It's like roll-call for the "I'm not racist ...but" crowd.
Maybe, but as another poster said, unless you know what the contents of the course are, you don't have enough evidence to comment on the issue.
I work in a field that centers race and inequality, in addition to many other social justice-related issues. Something remarkable has happened in the past 5-10 years: instead of talking about inequality from multiple perspectives and recognizing the complexity of social phenomena, everybody is now expected to adopt a single, narrow ideological stance on all diversity and inequality issues. Unless you agree that all of Western civilization is an effort to create and sustain a white supremacist, cis-normative, heteronormative power structure, you are hateful and need to be re-educated. Note that Critical Race Theory asserts this very thing about whiteness. Never mind that the identity categories I just named are relatively recent constructions. One either has to admit that they are guilty by birth (or powerless and victimized by birth)and commit to dismantling our social structure, or face harassment, name-calling, etc.
When these ideas show up in education, they create an emotionally-abusive and hostile environment that "privileged" categories of people are expected to tolerate due to their original sin. IMO, this form of education is a violation of The Civil Rights Act. However, few white people, heterosexuals, "cis" people are likely to file a complaint because doing so is tantamount to career suicide.
Back to DeStantis: FIRE and other free speech orgs have taken aim at him for attempts to censor educational institutions in the name of anti-Wokeness. Their concerns may be founded. I have not looked into the specifics of legislation, etc. However, I suspect that some of the stuff DeSantis is taking aim at is actually illegal vis-a-vis civil rights laws. If African American Studies courses are scapegoating groups based on protected characteristics, they will futher contribute to hostility and division. Maybe DeSantis is framing the problem incorrectly.
Now, as an AP State Scholar I will chime in with a couple of takeaways:
1. AP credits like this typically only count as elective credits when you go to college. I passed multiple AP courses that amounted to elective credits in college. I had more elective credits than I needed for my major, however, I was still required by my university to take a cross cultural elective, which ended up being the History of Jazz. This requirement didn't really enrich my college experience and provided nothing towards my career. Ironically, had African American Studies been an AP course at the time and had I taken it and passed it, it would have actually filled the cross-cultural requirement that the other courses (like U.S. History) did not.
In hindsight, this requirement was more of a method for the colleges to find work for people with the gender and ethnic studies majors whose real-world prospects were limited at best. Ultimately, these requirements increase the cost of an education while contributing little. Looking back, I would have loved to have taken another finance course instead of the History of Jazz (as it was, I graduated with about 20 more credits than was required for my major).
2. There are no other ethnic American AP classes. No AP Irish American History. No AP Slavic American History. No AP Chinese American History. No AP Latin American History.
3. As noted in #1, it's elective credit. A lot of the classes that people take in college have little bearing on their career. The relevance of some of these courses to employers is they prove that for four years of your life you were responsible enough to show up, on time, take orders and work diligently. In this regard, this course would fulfill that requirement. If such a course motivates those who are historically disengaged in the education system to show up for class, work hard and try to achieve, then it is a win for the education system and should not be discouraged or prohibited.
You might want to check out what's available in the Florida High School curriculum on your #2 chime in takeaway
Why check anything when you can just automatically get triggered and jump to the conclusion that 'black=bad' ?
African American studies is bogus, victimhood nonsense that means nothing in the real World and won't get you a decent job.
Then they will complain they can't pay their student loans back. Useless degree for people who have no business going to college. It goes with all the other ethnic, gender and social 'science' degrees.
He claims it lacks educational value. This guy makes me sick to my stomach. Trump all over again.
I have no problem with banning teaching the 1619 project that is just a fluff piece. I also don’t care to see critical race theory taught in schools or see the point of the narrative that any institutional structures that preserve existing inequities are inherently racist.
The Guardian article is unclear on what FL laws are being violated, but African American studies sounds fine as an elective for high school kids who want to take it.