College Board standing up to schools that censor topics
Hmm. Another reason that schools should not censor topics covered in American school classes.
Leaving politics aside, there’s been a rash of discussion, and even legislation, around what should and should NOT be taught in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. You’ve heard it all. World Religions? Civil rights (racism)? Jim Crow laws? Gender identification?
Now the College Board (the organization that administers the SATs and certifies AP Courses) has issued a warning to schools that remove historical or other relevant content from their AP courses may lose their license to teach those courses.
So students who take courses where teachers are forced to remove specific content from their lectures and presentation may lose their right to list their AP courses on their transcripts. And even if they did take the course and the AP exam at the end of the school year, they will be at a huge disadvantage because they will not have the introduction and exposure to content included on the AP exams.
This is not new news… I remember working with students back in the 2000s who took AP Biology in parochial schools where they taught creation and not evolution (science). This is still prevalent today. Many parents, and students, are not aware of what concepts are omitted from classroom lectures and that their children are not receiving the same curriculum content that other students are receiving. And for the past several years, teachers and schools are under pressure from religious organizations and the federal government to censor topics introduced in classrooms.
The good news: the College Board is warning against censoring AP course content and threatening that students who take these classes may lose their AP credits.
In 1994, I developed the Merit Academy K-12 curriculum to prepare our students to be leaders. Rather than censor concepts or books, I consulted with experts to include comprehensive review of controversial subjects. When students (and teachers) have the freedom to research, discuss, and examine concepts, they are better equipped to understand them and appreciate various cultures and histories.
When our students learned about ancient religions, we researched ALL 5 major world religions. They compared and contrasted religions, visited institutions to see how religions are practiced, and continued to analyze the development of these religions in today’s society. I can’t imagine censoring political or religious content from any curriculum.
Seems like we’re heading towards a dystopian society (think: Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451) where books are banned.