New AP class to teach Black history, culture next year

By Keira Van Der Molen and Alysa Basmadzhyan @k.kiwi_o and @alysa_katee

While hoping to explore her heritage, freshman Camryn Claridy sees next school year’s new AP African American Studies course as a way to learn about her ancestors’ experiences with inequality and racial oppression.

“I would take the course because I want to learn more about my heritage and more about what Black people had to go through in the past,” Claridy said.

AP African American Studies will be a new course offered to Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS) students next year. This course is new to the College Board’s offering of Advanced Placement courses. So far, 60 high schools around the United States offer AP African American Studies.

“I feel like it’d be a good class to have for this type of school since this school is what I’d call a progressive school,” freshman Tobias Bechdholt said.

AP African American Studies has caused a national controversy with conservatives including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis saying “We believe in education, not indoctrination.”

“I think it opens up students about other cultures that we don’t get to focus on in other curriculums,” counselor Martina Torres said. “It’s also another opportunity for students to show that they can perform at AP level work and I know a lot of students like to add that extra point on their GPA.”

Due to critics’ comments stating that the College Board created the course with the purpose of satisfying political pressure, the organization made changes to the class including several removals of topics, such as slavery reparations.

Florida’s Department of Education has even banned the AP African American Studies course, sending a letter to The

College Board on Jan. 12, officially announcing its decision, with the belief the course will teach students a “political agenda,” according to npr.org.

“The controversy is ridiculous because history is history,” said senior Ashley Harrison, who’s a member of the Black Student Union (BSU). “It’s just the plain facts and the plain events that happened and it’s important to just learn about it whether or not you agree with it. It’s shielding people from these teachings and people will learn about it in one way or another.”

She adds that the point of any course such as world history is to educate people, even if they don’t like it because it’s the truth and the truth shouldn’t be ignored.

“I feel that they should keep the class for the people that want to take it,” Bechdholt said. “If you don’t wanna take the class then that’s fine because it may not pique your interest.”

Topics that will be discussed in the course include the Black Panthers, the Harlem Renaissance and the reign of Queen Nzinga Mbade, according to BestColleges.com.

“I have not really taught a class like this before but in my US history class, we do a lot of African American studies,” history teacher Brenda Helfing said. “We concentrate a lot in bringing that into U.S. history. I’ve never taught it as an elective but I have a lot of stuff from my U.S. history class that I’ll be using in this class.”

Claridy says this course will not only teach African-American history but also a sense of consideration.

“People can develop consideration for Black People and take in their struggles,” Claridy said.