The measure tells schools to steer clear of content and class discussion that is sexual in nature unless it is related to a standard, such as health class.
Source: Tampa Bay Times
English teachers in Hillsborough County are preparing lessons for the new school year with only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s works.
Students will be assigned pages from the classics, which might include “Macbeth,” “Hamlet” and the time-honored teen favorite, “Romeo and Juliet.” But if they want to read them in their entirety, they will likely have to do it on their own time.
School district officials said they redesigned their instructional guides for teachers because of revised state teaching standards and a new set of state exams that cover a vast array of books and writing styles.
Joseph Gaither, a reading teacher at Gaither High School put it this way:
“I think the rest of the nation — no, the world, is laughing us,” he said. “Taking Shakespeare in its entirety out because the relationship between Romeo and Juliet is somehow exploiting minors is just absurd.”
Jessica Vaugh, a school board member (soon to be an ex-school board member, no doubt) was even more blunt.
“Honestly, it feels that much of this is intentional, in order to cause as much chaos in public education as possible, so that the collapse of public education is swift and the agenda of education privatization can move forward with less obstacles,” she wrote on Facebook.
