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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   29410 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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Since AP Psychology is neither required by state academic standards nor a reproductive health course, that certainly sounds like they were saying at that time that including those subjects in an AP Psych class is unlawful

But the amount of material incorporated by reference there is... daunting, I guess I want to say. Rule 6A-1.09401 leads with--

These standards, benchmarks, and access points are contained in the following publications which are hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of this rule.

--and then bullet-points and hyperlinks fifteen more documents. In SC.912.CS-PC.2.3 (part of the science standards) we read, for instance, that the Grade 9-12 benchmarks include

Discuss and analyze the impact of values and points of view that are presented in media messages (e.g., racial, gender, and political)

In SS.912.HE.2.5 (part of the social studies standards) we read that the Grade 9-12 benchmarks include

Students will explain the effects of Nazi “racial hygiene” policies on various groups including, but not limited to, ethnic (e.g., Roma-Sinti, Slavs) and religious groups (e.g., Jehovah’s Witnesses), political opposition, the physically and mentally disabled and homosexuals.

So some understanding of both gender and sexual orientation is essential to meeting Grade 9-12 benchmarks, which were incorporated into the rules here. Either the College Board has shitty lawyers (a real possibility, I admit!) or they just didn't want to make the argument. And as @netstack suggests, maybe the College Board was just tired of making arguments after the African-American Studies thing, maybe they think it's futile and the DeSantis bureaucracy is just out to get them regardless of what they say. Maybe they're right about that! But that doesn't get the College Board off the hook, I think, for the blatant mischaracterizations they decided to trot out instead.

Either the College Board has shitty lawyers (a real possibility, I admit!) or they just didn't want to make the argument.

I don’t think that would have been much of an argument. The AP Psych course requires teaching, as part of unit on developmentalpsychology, "how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development." That is nowhere close to what your examples from state standards relate to, and an argument that a standard that requires teaching how the Nazis treated homosexuals somehow brings within its ambit "how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development" would seem to be frivolous.

Edit:

Maybe they're right about that!

I doubt that they have it out for the College Board. But I do note that DeSantis is running for President on an anti-"woke" platform.

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