BY CONCEDING TO FASCISTS!
When DeSantis the First attacked the College Board’s new African American Studies program by banning it in the Free State, it was understandably addressed as an assault on academic freedom as well as an act of standard right-wing, white-nationalist dedication to ignorance and racism. Defending the College Board was defending a comprehensive academic institution dedicated to critical thought and well-rounded learning. It was a noble endeavor defending a noble organization.
We lost sight of the fact that the College Board is not an academic institution dedicated to truth, knowledge, and comprehensive critical thought. It is a business, dedicated to making money.
So, it should come as no surprise that, when faced with the prospects of losing market share in one of the largest states in the Union, the College Board discarded academic ethics like used packaging. After all, academics is nothing more than packaging used to sell the College Board’s product.
I have taken great joy and pride in teaching Advanced Placement history courses in the past. I enjoyed the expansive curricula that allowed me, as a teacher, to cover broad scopes of history while exercising significant creativity in how I presented the courses. I reveled in how the College Board not only encouraged critical and analytical thought, it was a requirement for earning credit. I really felt that my students taking AP World History and AP U.S. History were getting “real” history in my class. In other words, instead of just learning a lot of historical stuff, they were learning how to think like historians.
I really believed that the College Board was dedicated to real scholarship and real education. That was my previous experience. Now that they’ve caved to the most explicit fascist voice in the United States today, I realize how naive I was.
The College Board is a business. And businesses do not resist fascism. Doing so is much to costly to the bottom line.
I’m ashamed of the College Board.
Dangerous Knowledge 