FL Removes Sociology

Ron DeSantis condemned as Florida removes sociology as core college class

“board of education voted on Wednesday to replace the established course on the principles of sociology at its 12 public universities with its own US history curriculum, incorporating an “historically accurate account of America’s founding [and] the horrors of slavery”.”

This is my humble opinion. Principles of Sociology isn’t a History course.

“The American Sociological Association said there was no evidentiary basis for replacing the sociology course.

“This decision seems to be coming not from an informed perspective, but rather from a gross misunderstanding of sociology as an illegitimate discipline driven by ‘radical’ and ‘woke’ ideology,” the American Sociological Association said in a statement to the Guardian.

“Sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers.

“Failure to prioritize the scientific study of the causes and consequences of human behavior is a failure of Florida’s commitment to providing high-quality civics education and workforce readiness.”

The association called for the board to reverse its “outrageous” decision.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/26/florida-sociology-classes-ron-desantis-condemned

 

Of course not. More Florida craziness.

 

The depths of Ron DeSantis stupidity surprises me again!

 

I think he's in a contest with Gov. Abbott.

 

Does this help any?

"The board faced a backlash last summer for requiring public schools to teach that forced labor was beneficial to enslaved Black people because it taught them useful skills."

From here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/26/florida-sociology-classes-ron-desantis-condemned#:~

Some frightening (to me) curriculum changes about violence to Blacks - lynchings etc. here:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/florida-black-history

Prove anything? I hope so but I'm not sure. People have movable standards of that, around here according to which side they're on, and chapter and verse of The All-Holy MBFC. But I DO know - it's wrong as hell.

 

Seems to be. Ron DeSantis' hand-picked Board - or folks under their command. Orders straight from 400 South Monroe St, Tallahassee. The State Capitol, I guess. That's where Ron's office is. Pursuant to the Stop Woke Act. (Yep - that's what it's called.)

"The Individual Freedom Act, commonly known as the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act and abbreviated to the Stop WOKE Act, is a Florida state law which regulates the content of instruction and training in schools and workplaces." - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_WOKE_Act#:~
(emphasis mine - J.)

 

I took a sociology class in school. That was long ago so these days it might be considered ancient sociology. There was some good explanations of how things worked in ancient sociology. It provided an understanding that I otherwise would never have had on some issues. Making it available to fewer students in Florida is doing a disservice to those students. However, white washing history with white nationalist nonsense is even more cause for concern, IMHO.

 

I have a BA with a concentration in Sociology. Never took a sociology course, though. Is it hard?

 

No, not very. Less difficult than psych, I'd say. It's not an old science, really. Most of the pioneering work is in the 19th century by French and German thinkers. The only one of those I didn't like was Karl Marx. * Durkheim, Comte, Weber - all OK. I took two sociology courses in college (in my 40s) about six in psych and some related - two in Human Relations and one Intro to Counselling. I liked them all.

Our sociology instructor was a dynamite guy - Mr. Sammy Sorrento -- a young man, around 30, with an MA in Sociology. His classes moved along and I enjoyed them. His nutshell definition: "Sociology is the study of human group life." I think it's still good.

* It's on record that at least one of Marx's children starved to death. Marx was a man who had wealthy connections. He refused offers of well-paid work, for sixteen years, plus outright gifts of money from supporters - both for reasons of his "principles." Those "principles" led to extreme poverty for his wifr and children, culminating in the death from starvation of his daughter.

Now you know why I feel the way I do, about Karl Marx.

 

I made up for it at Leicester. Trust me.

 

My two favorites are Pierre Bourdieu and Lord Anthony Giddens. (Giddens is from the UK and is still with us.) I use each of their most famous theories--Social Capital Theory and Structuration, respectively--constantly in my executive leadership coaching.

 

Child mortality was tragically common in Marx's time. I'd need strong evidence before blaming a parent, especially one who in other accounts even from his critics was a doting father.

My brother and sister died in neonatal care in the 1970s. The hospital hurried their bodies away and gave my grieving mother pat reassurances that she could have another baby.

Health care providers' protocols for neonatal bereavement have improved greatly since. When my mother returned to college decades later she used sociology to look into how. In 2007 she completed her doctoral dissertation on the question (in sociology at York University in Toronto). My favourite sociologist.

 

My first response: Yeah?

Google: "He lived on money he received from Engels. With that money, Marx bought mostly cigars. His children began to starve. Three of Marx's children died of starvation or starvation-related diseases." -- This sounded convincing.

THEN I found this: An answer on Quora to the question: "How did three of Marx's children die in infancy?

"They didn’t. Four of Jenny and Karl Marx’s seven children died in childhood, three lived to adulthood as socialist activists. One was virtually stillborn, two died at about a year old, one lived to eight. This was pretty much par for the course. Infant mortality rates in mid 19th century London were sky high, approaching 33%, having risen dramatically from the turn of the century for the reasons that Marx himself discussed in his life work, including overcrowding, appalling sanitation, squalor, epidemic disease, and pollution. They continued to rise to the end of the century.

And what “others” supported Marx apart from Engels?

I understand the impulse to show that Marx was a bad person, although he was not; irascible and cranky, certainly, but not cruel, hateful, dishonest. However, the idea that this would be some sort of criticism of Marxism or Marx’s ideas, if true, is an ad hominem fallacy. If you want to refute his ideas you have to engage them directly. He could be a serial killer and still right about capitalism. (He was not a serial killer.)"

Looks like I've been a victim of misinformation, from others who don't like Marx. I still don't like him, but I'll refrain from spreading untrue stories about him. Thanks, Jonathan

 

BTW that incorrect info I picked up about Marx wasn't in sociology class. It was maybe 20 years later. Forget where.

Thanks Steve. You've renewed my dislike of Marx and made it rational. I needed that.

 

Sociology was an easy class, I thought. It was a very fun class. I liked the Cultural Anthropology class more. I liked Cultural Anthropology so much that I took Physical Anthropology after. I didn't really like that class. Although a fun thing that happened was the teacher was lecturing us about hybridization. When organisms from two different species mix, or breed together, it is known as hybridization. When the teacher mentioned this I burst out laughing. The teacher was taken aback and asked me what was so funny. I told the class that my parents told me that millions of years ago that space aliens came to this planet and mated with humans. Then offspring were produced from the mating.

Obviously space alien DNA would probably be even less compatible with human DNA than DNA from an Earth tree.