US Education - PTSI D - Corrigés des 5 CC
On 07/11/2024 from 14:00 at 16:00
Education – CC1 – Texas bans on climate education
Good examples from students’ works
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Education – CC2 – Freedom of speech on US campuses
From the Vietnam War to this year’s occupation of campuses to denounce the US military help to Israel and speak up for Palestine civilians, college students have long been active in sharing their views about issues important to them. Student activism raises questions about actions and speech that are protected by the First Amendment and about schools’ responses, such as canceling graduations, instituting policies to limit protests like remote classes or even calling the police, citing concerns for public order and academic activities.
The recent clashes with the police and ensuring arrests that occurred in prominent universities like UCLA or Columbia, also shed light on the stakes of university governance: how to balance academic freedom and freedom of speech and the need to keep attracting state funding and private donors in a world where everything is amplified by social media? (140 words)
Education – CC3 – Anti-woke curriculum censorship in Florida
The Florida Board of Governors* recently removed sociology as a core course option for public colleges, keeping it only as an elective, to replace it with a “factual history course”; a decision which critics say will kill the programs and was fueled by political motivations as sociology deals with race, gender and sexual orientation, all subjects which are in the Republicans’ cross hairs. The onslaught on social sciences is thus part of an anti-woke crusade that threatens academic freedom, according to Governor De Santis’s detractors. The culture war that the former presidential candidate has been leading in Florida has also led to eliminating the New College of Florida’s Gender Studies Major, financing an institute to combat “cancel culture”, enacting the Don’t Say Gay policy K-12 schools, and fighting all DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs. (135 words)
* which oversees public universities in the state
Education – CC4 – Book bans in Florida schools
Hundreds of books are being purged nationwide from school libraries following right-wing challenges. Florida accounts for 40% of that censorship but is also the epicenter of a resistance movement that aims to combat censorship with action. Methods vary across the country to provide access to banned books. They range from a network of clandestine libraries in shops like bakeries, to online initiatives from non-profit organizations like Banned Books USA that grant online access to such books. The students themselves are setting up banned books book clubs and trying to make their voice heard to the school councils. Even public libraries across the country have resolved to grant free access to their e-books. All of these actions aim at defending the fundamental value of free speech and making sure that students are not being denied access to their history and that of their community. (143 words)
Education – CC5 – 10 Commandments in Louisiana schools
The Governor of Louisiana passed a law requiring public schools, from elementary to university, to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The objective is to spread faith and morals and make sure, by demanding that every poster come with a context statement, that students understand how they have been a prominent part of public education for three centuries. The ACLU will be suing the State to prevent this law from taking effect because, they argue, it violates both a 1980 Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment which protects freedom of religion. But Louisiana is surfing on a wave of conservative laws in education, among which the hiring of chaplains or forbidding teachers from talking about sexual orientation, and they expect this decision to be challenged for SCOTUS to rule once again on more conservative values: this is just a bait. (142 words)