A public charter school’s bizarre decision to force a principal to resign after an image of Michelangelo’s “David” was shown in art class is possibly due to its ties with a Christian entity.
Although Florida’s Tallahassee Classical is public, its curriculum, unwisely, is designed by Hillsdale College, a small sectarian Christian college far away in Michigan. The Tallahassee K-12 school touts its mission, ironically, as being a “content-rich classical education in the liberal arts and sciences, with instruction in the principles of moral character and civic virtue” [italics added].
However, two parents complained over an image of “David” being shown in a sixth-grade art class, saying school policy requires them to be notified in advance if “controversial” subjects are to be taught. A third parent outright labeled the image pornographic. Clearly, the 400-student school, which has operated for only three years, is intended to attract religiously conservative parents. Who else would assess the iconic, Renaissance-era marble nude statue depicting a biblical character as “porn”?
“Why is a Michigan Christian institution providing the curriculum for a Florida public school anyway?” asks FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “You’d think we were living back in the Victoria era, when polite society couldn’t refer to chicken breasts or thighs and suggestive piano ‘legs’ might have to be covered (quick, fetch the smelling salts!).”
The Accademia in Florence is inviting the school’s parents and students to come and see “David” in person, which attracts 1.7 million visitors a year. And Florence Mayor Dario Nardella has extended an invitation to former Principal Hope Carrasquilla.
The incident shows the folly of public schools partnering in any way with Hillsdale College, a 1,500-student campus in rural Michigan, whose espoused mission is to “maintain the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith, protect religious and civil liberty and teach core tenets of Western civilization.” Donors include the “Amway” DeVos and “Blackwater” Prince families.
The college prides itself on not accepting public dollars or allowing students to take government aid so that it can forgo federal rules on adhering to Title IX guidance on sex discrimination and doesn’t have to disclose information such as student demographics, according to USA Today. In 2010, Hillsdale College aggressively launched its Barney Charter School Initiative, “devoted to the revitalization of public education through the launch and support of classical K-12 charter schools.” The college operates at least seven charter schools in Florida, and says it enrolls about 14,500 students in various charter schools across the country.
Although it was admirably founded in 1844 by abolitionist Baptists, and admitted women and Black students before the Civil War, the college morphed under the tutelage of President George Roche III into what the National Review has called it “one of the most important institutions in American conservatism.” Roche, with the help of Ginni Thomas (wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas), opened an outpost called the Kirby Center in Washington, D.C., in 2018.
Current Hillsdale President Larry Arnn, identified as one of the architects of a ban on affirmative action in California, led President Trump’s 1776 Commission, which produced a heavily criticized report distorting American history, according to USA Today. Arnn opposes the teaching of critical race theory and Common Core standards.
Notably, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in January a takeover of New College of Florida, a small, nontraditional public university, saying he plans to transform it into the “Hillsdale of the South.” Flagler College Civil Rights History Professor Michael Butler warns that “Florida is being used as a laboratory for policies and practices concerning higher education that will be unveiled at the national level.”
Clearly, that “laboratory” is actually starting in the lower grades. The embarrassing controversy at Tallahassee Classical is a case study for why this experiment in education needs to be ended now.