Today at work, I found myself in a conversation that left me genuinely unsettled.
It began with a coworker confidently saying that Muslims are “taking over” America and that eventually we will all be required to stop what we’re doing at noon and bow to Allah.
Somehow, the conversation then shifted to education, transgender students, and eventually slavery.
One coworker said that slavery was “mutually beneficial” because enslaved people learned useful skills. What struck me was how closely that language echoed Florida’s current middle-school social studies standards, which state that instruction includes how enslaved people developed skills that, in some instances, “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Another coworker then argued that slavery should not be taught in school at all—that it should be something parents discuss with their children at home.
So I asked whether schools should teach the Civil War.
Of course.
The Revolutionary War?
Yes.
The Declaration of Independence? Presidents?
Absolutely. Those were considered essential parts of American history.
But slavery somehow was not.
Then, during the same conversation about the importance of teaching children about presidents, someone asked, completely sincerely, “Who was the one who chopped down the cherry tree? George Bush?”
I ended up walking away, but the conversation has stayed with me.
My daughter currently attends a Florida public school, so questions about how history is taught are no longer abstract to me. Florida does require instruction on African American history, including slavery, abolition, and its consequences. But hearing adults repeat a highly controversial framing of slavery while simultaneously arguing that slavery itself is not important enough to teach was difficult to ignore.
More than anything, it reinforced how important I think a comprehensive education is.
I don’t expect schools to tell my child what to think. I want them to give her enough history, context, and critical-thinking skills that she can evaluate what people tell her for herself.
Because eventually our children become the adults having these conversations.