Governor Ron DeSantis is a big supporter of the Hillsdale College model for K-12 education, which Hillsdale calls a “classical education.” The model focuses on white, European history and literature and minimizes issues of race, gender, and diversity.
The Miami-Dade School District is beginning the process of opening a Hillsdale-style classical school.
The Miami Herald reported:
Miami-Dade Schools is considering implementing a classical education curriculum in at least one elementary school for the upcoming school year — introducing a politically debated education model and potentially displacing students and teachers if they do not wish to participate.
The tentative plan, provided to the board ahead of its Wednesday committee meeting, calls for picking a school, recruiting students, selecting a curriculum and training staff and faculty during the current school year and rolling out the curriculum over the next three years.
The district could also collaborate with the University of Florida’s Hamilton Classical and Civic Education Center — an academic center that was proposed during the 2022 Legislative Session by a group whose representative had a long history of working with conservative groups and advancing the mission of religious organizations. (The University of Florida received $3 million when Gov. Ron DeSantis approved the state budget.)
The model has been championed by conservatives, including DeSantis. Supporters of the model say it offers an alternative education to the traditional public school, which in recent years has been accused of focusing too heavily on discussions of race, gender identity and other social issues.
Critics say the model’s spotlight on Western civilization teaches a whiter, glossier version of American history and leaves out more contemporary subjects, such as global warming.
District staffers maintain they’re exploring it to see if the curriculum model would be feasible. Chief Academic Officer Lourdes Diaz told board members Wednesday it’s just the “first layer to see what is potentially possible.”
The plan does include a three-year implementation schedule to begin next school year, but that timeline could change. Grade configurations, geographical locations and partners, if any, would be considered when determining the program’s feasibility, the district said.
The education model, which DeSantis and other conservatives have championed, was first brought before the board in June by board member Monica Colucci, whom DeSantis endorsed in last year’s election.
The curriculum, which emphasizes a return to core virtues and subjects like math, science, civics and classical texts, puts a strong emphasis on Western tradition — or a historical focus on white, Western European and Judeo-Christian foundations — and demands a school culture of “moral virtue, decorum, respect, discipline, and studiousness among both students and faculty,” according to Hillsdale College’s Barney Charter School Initiative. Hillsdale College, a private college in Michigan with ties to DeSantis, is one of the most prominent proponents of the model.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article280124494.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“. . . by a group whose representative had a long history of working with conservative groups and advancing the mission of religious organizations.”
Those are not “conservative groups.” They are reactionary xtian theofascist groups.
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“They are reactionary xtian theofascist groups.”
You are too kind, Duane.
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xtian. n. Use of x, formerly known as Twitter.
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Just kidding. But yeah, Duane nailed them.
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Your “x” comments really works. Where was I reading about Musk’s grandfather?
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yup
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These morons at Hillsdale, and their spawn across the country, wouldn’t know actual classical Greek and Roman culture if it bit them on their well-padded asses. They promote an utterly mythical version. Their “birthplace of democracy” Greeks condemned Socrates to death and denied the vote to most people. Both were way into pederasty and slavery. They mostly hated the Christians and accused them of holding orgies, casting spells, and killing and eating babies.
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And it’s not as if we haven’t known for a LONG time now that the ancient Greeks weren’t what the Hillsdale Huckleberries think they were:
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Oh, and the pride of the ancient Greek world, the Eleusinian Mysteries, also the best-kept secret in history, most likely involved taking a hallucinogenic drug as part of the initiation. There’s your classical culture for you, Hillsdaliens.
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The closed link, above, is to E.R. Dodds’s book The Greeks and the Irrational. Highly recommended.
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Since Republicans and conservatives want more guns to be sold, I’m sure they’ll appreciate this news item. I guess [BARF] more guns in schools means more kids are safe.
The number of guns seized in U.S. schools each day is soaring.
How many? 1,150 guns, more than six a day on average, were found on K-12 campuses last school year, according to a Post investigation. The true number may be higher.
What else to know: The number of gun seizures has surged since the 2018-2019 school year, alongside a rise in behavioral problems in schools following pandemic shutdowns.
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Have to be honest, I find it hard to get upset about the idea of schools that focus on math, science and classical texts, with a strong emphasis on the Western canon.
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My son is taking four years of Latin in high school. Disgusting!
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All those things would be wonderful. But what we are talking about here is a dramatically distorted view of what constitutes the “Western canon,” basically a comic book version of the canon and of history with the sole purpose of inculcating Christian nationalism.
We are seeing in Israel and Gaza right now what happens as a result of religious extremism.
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That’s fair, Bob. But I think a lot of people actually do believe that an education focused largely on the Western canon is a bad thing, which I disagree with.
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It would be a shame if people didn’t read, say, the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
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Years ago, I was asked by a potential employer if I would be interested in working on something that he described as an “informal Geometry” text.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Well,” he answered, “It’s a Geometry text without formal proofs, for challenged learners.”
“I don’t know what such a thing might be,” I answered, “but it’s not geometry.”
I’ve read through the Hillsdale 1776 curriculum. It is an exercise in sins of omission, in distortion by cherry picking texts. One would imagine, reading it, that all our Founding Fathers were Christian fundamentalists intensely opposed to immigration.
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