Hey America, is everything okay down there? Y'all have some truly dystopian stuff going on there. Felony prosecution for showing kids books that the Governor didn't approve of? Yikes.
 
Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
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Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#52Hey America, is everything okay down there? Y'all have some truly dystopian stuff going on there. Felony prosecution for showing kids books that the Governor didn't approve of? Yikes.
To fill in some context...
This isn't about Governor approval. This was approved by the legislature and signed into law by the governor. Not a mandate by them.
The context of all of this is teachers putting books in front of kids that their parents don't approve of.
I'm not in Florida but I'll give you a local example to me that's come under debate. A book with sexually explicit material was recently pulled from an elementary school. Kids 10-ish and under. sex education doesn't come until the end of elementary school. If I understand it right, this was not an education book.
There is debate over whether this should be in the school and there are parents, politicians, and teachers on both sides of this.
What got Florida to this point is worth exploring and discussing. No matter what side you're on.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nothing's ever been ok in Florida. They do their own thing down there, and we stay far away from the crazyness. Each state is semi-independent with the federal/state separation of powers. It's good for vacation though.
I dunno. As the country bifurcates more and more, I'm thinking long and hard about if I want to travel to certain states. I'd rather as little of my money as possible be spent there.
Don’t worry, your federal tax dollars get routed to these states automatically.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#54Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#55In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. Prepare for “route around the damage” moment whe…
Classroom libraries are a big deal. Every step taken that makes a teacher's job riskier, less pleasant, or less like what they want to be doing (teaching kids, without having to worry about whether some plainly-positive action is legal), drives good teachers out of the profession.
> drives good teachers out of the profession.
Working as designed. They cannot possibly be so ignorant as to claim good intentions.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#56Hey America, is everything okay down there? Y'all have some truly dystopian stuff going on there. Felony prosecution for showing kids books that the Governor didn't approve of? Yikes.
We have an big propaganda issue that is being exploited by our national enemy's (I'm talking about you Russia). All this stuff that upsets our stable society is only good for our enemies. Nobody should care of what other people are reading, unless it poses a threat to our society. Talk about shouting fire in a theater.
How is this Russia's doing? Do you have a source for that claim?
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#57If anybody thinks this is a good idea, I'm looking forward to reading your opinions.
There's actually a very simple argument: The existing system has been used as a workaround by activists to defacto teach things that shouldn't be taught to students. Keeping the books out of the library is the best practical method of stopping this, because directly controlling the contents of the curriculum is hard to enforce. That argument may or may not be true in this particular case, but it's not some impossible…
> The existing system has been used as a workaround by activists to defacto teach things that shouldn't be taught to students.
And who determines, with which justification, what should be taught to students? Teaching science and facts should never be something controversial, and I'd expect teachers to be able (and allowed to) make that decision - they know the children under their responsibility the best, not politicians.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nothing's ever been ok in Florida. They do their own thing down there, and we stay far away from the crazyness. Each state is semi-independent with the federal/state separation of powers. It's good for vacation though.
I dunno. As the country bifurcates more and more, I'm thinking long and hard about if I want to travel to certain states. I'd rather as little of my money as possible be spent there.
[deleted]
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#59> must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, The same people who oppose freedom of speech are over here supporting DeSantis and his crusade against education and his push for bigger government.
Free speech is not the same as being able to tell other people’s kids anything you want while they’re attending a mandatory educational institution run in the name of the public. This law seems like an extreme reaction, but to what many people believe is already an extreme situation. See also: https://youtu.be/TwucVRj_mdc
Wait, Florida has banned private schooling and homeschooling? That seems like a much bigger problem.
Re: Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools
#60Hey America, is everything okay down there? Y'all have some truly dystopian stuff going on there. Felony prosecution for showing kids books that the Governor didn't approve of? Yikes.
To fill in some context... This isn't about Governor approval. This was approved by the legislature and signed into law by the governor. Not a mandate by them. The context of all of this is teachers putting books in front of kids that their parents don't approve of. I'm not in Florida but I'll give you a local example to me that's come under debate. A book with sexually explicit material was recently pulled from an e…
> I'm not in Florida but I'll give you a local example to me that's come under debate. A book with sexually explicit material was recently pulled from an elementary school.
What book was it?
I ask because the first real science fiction book that I ever read, that inspired a life-long love for the genre, and which I read under the age of ten, was Rendezvous With Rama, which did contain a sex scene. And the presence of said sex scene didn't traumatize me or anything; I mostly just didn't understand it. Certainly not worth preventing me from having access to that book in its entirety over!