GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Students in both classrooms were considering historic events. In Introduction to Sociology, the discussion was about globalization. Three buildings over, a Civil Discourse class was debating 1798 America and the federal government's battle with the states for supremacy. Both courses fall within the broad field of study known as the humanities. But at the University of Florida, the class on early America is part of a growing and well-funded effort to counter what the state considers "woke" liberal indoctrination, while the sociology class is considered a prime example of the problem.
Nine GOP-led states have created 14 civics centers since 2017, when the first one was established in Arizona, focusing on topics such as America's founding and Western civilization. In Ohio, there are centers at five public universities, and in Utah, state law now mandates that all general education classes required for graduation at Utah State University be crafted by the new Center for Civic Excellence. The new rules also mandate that humanities courses required for graduation teach texts predominantly from Western civilization. Sasha Morel, who declared a Hamilton major this year, described Hamilton as offering "a curriculum of exclusion." The bias is not in how any one subject is taught, he said, but in the fact that "certain alternative ways of thinking are overshadowed." "Professors have so much room to talk about whatever they want," said Morel, who describes himself as politically progressive. "They are experts. That's awesome. But ... a lot of them are experts in a very narrow field or very conservative field of philosophy."
Nine GOP-led states have created 14 civics centers since 2017, when the first one was established in Arizona, focusing on topics such as America's founding and Western civilization. In Ohio, there are centers at five public universities, and in Utah, state law now mandates that all general education classes required for graduation at Utah State University be crafted by the new Center for Civic Excellence. The new rules also mandate that humanities courses required for graduation teach texts predominantly from Western civilization. Sasha Morel, who declared a Hamilton major this year, described Hamilton as offering "a curriculum of exclusion." The bias is not in how any one subject is taught, he said, but in the fact that "certain alternative ways of thinking are overshadowed." "Professors have so much room to talk about whatever they want," said Morel, who describes himself as politically progressive. "They are experts. That's awesome. But ... a lot of them are experts in a very narrow field or very conservative field of philosophy."
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