FLDOE Approves Right Wing Indoctrination In Florida’s Schools

“Education Not Indoctrination.”

“How to Think. Not What to Think.”

This has been the mantra of right-wing school board candidates and politicians across Florida for the past few years. And, really, who can argue with this, except to say that this is precisely what happens in essentially every public school classroom across the state – teachers teaching students how to think for themselves.

This week, we learned that Florida, after rewriting African American History standards and banning CRT, discussion of gender identity and/or sexual orientation, use of preferred pronouns and anything else “Woke” (violation of which could lead to a teacher losing their teacher certificate), has approved Prager U. videos for use in the classroom. (read about that here or here). Clearly, Tallahassee and the FLDOE are not concerned with indoctrination at all. Indoctrination is fine, if it is the “right kind” of indoctrination.

According to the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University, “PragerU, short for Prager University, is an American conservative organization that produces content to promote “Judeo-Christian values” to their millions of followers through short, lecture-style videos. Although it is not an academic institution, by using the word “university” in its title PragerU implies that the right-wing messaging they spread is factually correct and expert-driven. A number of PragerU’s videos spread anti-Muslim rhetoric and conspiracy theories.” 

A few weeks ago, I saw an email from the FLDOE notifying superintendents of the approval of several Prager U videos for high school financial literacy courses. (If I can find that email I will link it here). On Monday, PragerU issued a press release saying “that the breadth of its ‘PragerU Kids’ material was approved by Florida to be used in classrooms throughout the state.”

“Now we are actually making turnkey curriculum, content for your schools, and the state of Florida just announced that we are now becoming an official vendor. This means if you’re a teacher in Florida, you cannot be fired for using Prager U content. You can also rely on our resources in your classroom. And we’re just getting started…” https://www.prageru.com/prageru-in-schools-petition

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A few definitions:

Definition of “Indoctrination” according to the Cambridge Dictionary: “the process of repeating an idea or belief to someone until they accept it without criticism or question:”

Definition of “Indoctrinate” according to Dictionary.com: “to instruct in a doctrine, principle, ideology, etc., especially to imbue with a specific partisan or biased belief or point of view.”

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According to it’s website, Prager U’s goal is indoctrination.

On their website is a brief documentary, “The Prager U Story,” which they describe as “celebrating PragerU’s first 10 years in the mind-changing business.” Apparently, they believe their videos are “penicillin for the mind.” Their founder, Dennis Prager repeats “we are in the mind changing business. Few groups can say that.”

Craig Strazzer, Chief Marketing Officer, Prager U, says “Our videos have over 5 billion views, in 10 years. Every single day, 4 million people are watching Prager U, on a daily basis, “but we don’t want to just meet people with views, we want to make sure we’re changing their mind…”

Prager U CEO, Marissa Streit, describes the “story of Prager U” as a person watches “a Prager U video, they realize they have never heard the truth before and then they want to become part of the solution by becoming active in our movement.”

What exactly is that movement? In a separate video, entitled “Miseducated-The Decline of America’s Schools,” Street says: “We want our children to be educated, not indoctrinated. Schools should celebrate traditional values like hard work and service to one another, and pride in our country, not progressive ideologies. So what can we do about it? Fortunately, many states are banning critical race theory thanks to parents standing up.” The video shows a mashup of angry parents at school board meetings, one who claims “schools are trying to poison our children’s minds.” Street encourages parents to question teachers and administrators “why certain perspectives are included in pillar subjects,” and calls this “the most important fight we must battle – for our children.”

Prager U’s goal is to change minds and create conservative activists, out of parents and young people- the exact thing they accuse the left of doing.

Apparently, the Florida Department of Education encourages that kind of activism and indoctrination.