Divisive Concepts

New York's Education Wars a Century Ago Show how Content Restrictions Can Backfire

by Bill Greer

Laws enforcing ideological positions in education can gain popularity when they focus on unpopular ideas. But when they take effect to punish popular teachers, the public gets second thoughts. 

Was a Utah District's Decision to Remove the Bible from Shelves a Win for the Anti-Anti-Woke? History Says Maybe Not

by Matthew Smith

When citizens invoked Utah's new "sensitive content" law to force the district to remove the Bible from school libraries, some hoped they had achieved a coup demonstrating the folly of the law. But the Bible has long been a part of cultural conflicts focused on schools, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon. 

I'm Headed to Florida to Teach-In Against DeSantis's Education Policies

by Kellie Carter Jackson

This May 17 saw a 24-hour teach-in by historians in St. Petersburg, Florida, to protest the restrictions on curriculum, books and ideas pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies. As a historian of abolition, the author stresses that denying people the pen may influence them to pick up the sword. 

Academic Freedom is Vital to Developing the Critical Abilities Society Needs

by Jamie Merisotis

The push to restrict teaching "divisive concepts" in college classrooms is an authoritarian intrusion on the principles of academic freedom that have benefited America's students, economy, and democracy. 

Teaching History Without Harsh Truths? Tennessee's Law Demands the Impossible

by David Barber

"When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or our own Gov. Bill Lee and Tennessee’s legislature enact laws to prevent teaching Black history, they are defending white supremacy."

Kids Could Teach Republican Pols a Lesson About Handling the Harsh Truth

by Margaret McMullan

"Decades after she first walked into Little Rock Central High, Elizabeth Eckford said, 'True reconciliation can occur only when we honestly acknowledge our painful, but shared past'."

Why "Woke" is Such a Convenient Dog Whistle for the Right

by Samuel L. Perry and Eric L. McDaniel

The term hints at evoking demonized populations—Black and LGBTQ Floridians, for instance—while maintaining enough ambiguity to foster deniability about the consequences of legislation. It also has the auxiliary function of trolling white liberals. 

Florida Man Calls the Thought Police

by Victor Ray

"Another word for believing in systemic inequality is 'reality.' Few legitimate social scientists claim otherwise, as an overwhelming body of evidence supports structural accounts of racism." By suppressing this reality, DeSantis reaches back to the McCarthy era's suppression of thinking about racism.

Who Controls the Curriculum in Florida?

by Timothy V. Kaufman-Osborn

A federal court's ruling that Florida can't enforce it's "Stop WOKE" Act is a win for academic freedom, but not a total victory. Faculty must reassert the prerogative of setting curricular guidelines against administrators who see their role as serving the state. 

Will Florida's "Stop WOKE Act" Hold Up in Court? (Podcast)

Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder discuss the implications of the Florida legislature's intervention into the teaching of history. 

Nikole Hannah-Jones: Book Bans "Inevitable Backlash" to 2020 Protest Wave

The journalist cited historian Timothy Snyder's argument that authoritarianism relies on restricting national understanding of civic identity in ways that serve existing power. 

AHA to K-12 and Postsecondary Teachers: Share Your Challenges with "Divisive Concepts" Law

The AHA needs to hear directly from history teachers in states where content-based legislation has passed to help develp responses to protect the integrity of history teaching.

What Does it Mean to Teach "Divisive Concepts"?

by Dale E. Miller

Insofar as the problem of political indoctrination that new "divisive concepts" laws are ostensibly meant to solve exists at all, the cure may be worse than the disease.