Public school teachers are returning to their classrooms energized for the new school year, but many are also wary of challenges presented by new state laws and policies.
“As a teacher, as a husband of a teacher and a parent of two teenagers, all in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, I am excited, anxious, frustrated and hopeful about this new school year,” said Bradley Sultz, who teaches high school social studies at iPrep Academy.
“Many of us are excited for the new year, but there’s quite a bit of apprehension,” said Jen Kaelin, a physics teacher at Jose Marti MAST Academy.
“I’m worried that our students are going to get a whitewashed version of history,” added Renee O’Connor, who taught African American History at Norland Senior High School.
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O’Connor was nominated for Miami-Dade Teacher of the Year two years ago. She strongly disagrees with this assessment of the state’s new standards for her subject area by the Florida chancellor of public education, Dr, Paul Burns.
“These standards really also provide our Florida students with a robust depth of knowledge regarding the difficult circumstances overcome by African Americans and the vast contributions to the American story,” Burns said at a public hearing last month.
O’Connor says the new standards intentionally misrepresent the horrors of chattel slavery, they don’t mention past discrimination in the military, Blacks are partially blamed for mob violence against them, and several other points.
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“I strongly believe that politics should be left out of the classroom, truth-telling should be at the forefront, teachers should have the autonomy to teach the truth and to teach students to make up their own minds based on all of the facts and everything that is presented to them, not one side, not another side, but the truth side,” O’Connor said.
“Where did our ability as professionals disappear?” asked Kaelin.
She said many teachers feel disrespected by the state.
“Our students who identify as LGBTQ, students of color, and all teachers, we’re now under the microscope, we’re being zeroed in on because of what we’re doing in our classroom which is just teaching, we’re being accused of indoctrination, we’re being accused of teaching students things that have no place in the classroom, that we’re not doing,” Kaelin said.
“I am anxious, because as a social studies teacher who happens to teach AP psychology among many other great subjects, I am now forced to navigate through new state standards that can threaten my livelihood and damage the safe spaces that I work hard to create in my classroom for teaching and learning,” Sultz said. “I did not get into this business to groom kids, suggest that they become gay or trans, or poison their brains with devious books, frankly, I’m thankful if my children or my students just open a book,” Sultz said.
The teachers who spoke to us are also worried about the new state law which restricts kids from using any name other than the name on their birth certificates, unless their parents provide written permission. It was designed to prevent transgender kids from using a name of their preferred gender.
“That was really the intent of the law but as it is written, if I accidentally, in the middle of my class, refer to Maxwell as Max, and another student in the class goes home and tells their parents, that parent can contact the district and I can lose my teaching license,” Kaelin said.
