My synopsis: Florida's educational overlords, mostly appointed by Ron DeSantis, now direct us to teach the idea that slavery benefitted enslaved Americans. This is the propaganda spooked southerners devised to promote slavery, after Nat Turner's slave revolt of 1831. Disgusting and debunked!
In more depth: This is Florida's new benchmark "clarification" on slavery: "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."
This is outrageous. I am one of the most certified teachers in Florida, including middle school social studies and 14 other subject areas, and I can tell you that the benchmark clarification should elaborate on the horrors of slavery.
Historians know that there were some slaves who could "overwork" for cash, leveraging their skills for personal benefit like prisoners today can earn minimal wages. But, they were still ensnared by the abomination of being enslaved. Middle school social studies moves fast and covers a ton of ground, with students who are more difficult than high schoolers (in my experience) to keep academically engaged. This isn't the place for soliloquies on the Lost Cause, which would require instruction on the counterpoint argument debunking it, and as a teacher you don't have enough time for either one.
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Notes:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/20/florida-black-history-teaching-standards-00107067
https://www.oah.org/tah/may-3/slave-consumption-in-the-old-south-a-double-edged-sword/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy