All States Should Follow Florida In Teaching Evils Of Communism

As the new school year begins, Florida is mandating that lessons on the history of communism be taught to middle and high school students. In accordance with a bill passed last year, this educational initiative will integrate content about communism and its devastating effects on humanity into Florida’s social studies classes, putting it on par with lessons about civil rights and the Holocaust.

Unsurprisingly, communist sympathizers are wailing and gnashing their teeth at this development since it interferes with their dream of resurrecting an evil ideology. No doubt, the Democratic Socialists of America candidates have profited from the widespread ignorance about the communist governing model, which has ruined any society that has adopted it. These days, even the most incompetent DSA politician can win mass support by simply promising free stuff and attacking rich elites.

It’s no secret that legislating pedagogy can backfire. Often, lawmakers will pass laws about what to include in K-12 classrooms, but they forget to provide accompanying materials (i.e., standardized curriculum, textbooks, assessments, etc.) and professional training, which causes a lack of buy-in from teachers and administrators. At best, what follows is a half-hearted compliance that involves creating a blowoff class or giving a short presentation on the topic.

This is precisely what happened to California when it required an ethnic studies class in its public schools. Beyond the obvious partisan motivations behind such a course, there were countless logistical loose ends. It was anyone’s guess which materials to use, how the classes should be taught, or even which ethnicities to include. Worst of all, the state “never allotted money for the course, which meant the mandate hasn’t gone into effect.”

Fortunately, Florida’s rollout has been far more robust and comprehensive, which should help it overcome these problems. As the Epoch Times reports, the standards have been set, the texts are selected, the curriculum has been written, and the money has been spent: “approved resources will be provided to teachers rather than leaving them to find or develop the material themselves.” It also helps that the course designers can pull from preexisting elective courses on the history of communism, so they already have something to work from rather than having to start from scratch.

Moreover, for those who frame this as large-scale Republican indoctrination (merely Florida’s version of California’s ethnic studies class), this is objectively false. Rather, it is the absence of any such instruction about communism in American public schools that qualifies as mass indoctrination. For anyone who has lived through the Cold War, read about communist regimes in the past, or has personal experience with communism (e.g., Cubans and Venezuelans who fled their countries and now live in Florida), it is beyond scandalous how little most Americans actually know about communism.

While they might know about the evils of slavery, colonialism, or Jim Crow, they usually have no clue about communism, how dehumanizing it is, how America spent over half a century opposing it, or how many millions of people have been enslaved and massacred in its name. Rarer still is the student who can even define communism in any meaningful sense.

As a result, many students graduating from high school and college have very distorted notions about this failed theory. This in turn makes them especially vulnerable to Democrat propaganda and shameless leftist influencers. By contrast, right-wing radicalism can usually be resisted since even the slowest students of history know that Hitler, racism, and slavery were all very bad.

I have seen the way this works up close, and it’s disturbing. Years ago, while I was in the middle of teaching a class, a student whom I never taught cornered me and wanted to debate the merits of socialism after finding an essay I wrote years ago condemning it. From what I could tell in my conversation with him, he thought socialism was a benign system that helped the poor, enfranchised everyone, and modernized society. He also believed that countries like the U.S.S.R., Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela were not actually socialist. There was so much to unentangle, I gave up arguing and told him to email me. He never did.

Days afterward, I learned this student was not some reprobate who hated school, but took AP classes and did quite well in them. His understanding of socialism likely came from the internet, and he never thought to question any of it. Instead, he questioned an English teacher with the intent of “owning him” and bragging about it to his friends. This student can now vote and add his own voice to leftist echo chambers online.

If even bright students can fall for these lies, then it’s safe to assume the same is happening to the majority of people in this age group. Therefore, conservatives who hope to steer these kids away from leftist extremism must make a positive effort to teach the historical record surrounding these ideas at school. As usual, Florida is leading by example, and other states should follow. Not only are they rectifying a serious knowledge deficiency in education, but they are also implementing this program properly.

Ultimately, this is not really about making the kids “based,” but about meeting their educational needs and equipping them to think for themselves. For too long, students have been kept in the dark about communism and are now falling for it all over again. It’s better they learn the right way (at school) than the hard way (under an American communist regime).

Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher and freelance writer in the Dallas area. He is the founding editor of The Everyman, a senior contributor to The Federalist, and has written for essays for The American Mind, The Stream, Religion and Liberty, The Blaze, and elsewhere. He is also the host of “The Everyman Commentary Podcast.” Follow him on X.