The latest education scandal in Florida? A Tallahassee school board fired a principal after parents complained about a ‘pornographic’ lesson featuring MichelangeloIt is David (1501–04), the Renaissance masterpiece in bare marble 14 feet high.
The monumental sculpture, now housed in Florence Galleria dell’Accademiais one of the most iconic works of art in art history, but it didn’t help save Hope Carrasquilla’s work at Tallahassee Classical School when parents objected to its inclusion in a lesson for the sixth grade class.
Following the controversy, Barney Bishop, the school board president, demanded his resignation, which Carrasquilla tendered Monday at an emergency board meeting. The board named teacher Cara Wynn as his successor.
“It saddens me that my time here had to end like this,” said Carrasquilla, who had held the position since the start of the school year. Tallahassee Democratwho first reported his ousting.
Michelangelo’s masterpiece David at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images.
Tallahassee Classical, a K-10 charter school, has gone through three principals since opening in fall 2020. It is affiliated with Hillsdale College, a private conservative college in Michigan that designed a “classical education curriculum templatepresented as a return to the fundamental principles of Western civilization.
After a decade in “classical upbringing,” Carrasquilla knew that “every once in a while a parent gets upset with Renaissance art,” she told the newspaper. HuffPost. But she never thought she would lose her job because of it. (Bishop, the chairman of the board, insisted in various media that there were other issues that led more directly to Carrasquilla’s forced resignation.)
The parents had not been informed that the teacher would include David in the teaching of Renaissance art – a violation of a rule put in place two months ago by the school board requiring teachers to inform families of “potentially controversial” lesson content two weeks at the advance.
By not sending a notice, “we made a flagrant error”, said Bishop Slate.
He said one of the parents was upset that the teacher allegedly told the children that the sculpture was ‘not pornography’ and that they shouldn’t tell their parents about it.
“Non-pornography is a red flag. And of course, telling students, “Don’t tell your parents” is a huge red flag! said the bishop. “That word is inappropriate in this classroom…you don’t have to say that word in a Florida classroom!” »
Florida, of course, has become a flashpoint for conservative education legislation under Governor Ron DeSantis, such as the Parental Rights in Education Act, commonly known as the “Don’t Tell” Act. gay”, which limits the ability of teachers to discuss anything related to sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms. Another bill banned the teaching of critical race theory in kindergarten through 12th grade.
“We agree with everything the governor is doing in the area of education. We support him because he is right,” Bishop told the Independentclaiming that Tallahassee Classical was “cutting edge” when it came to Florida’s new educational standards.
Only three parents opposed the David, two on the grounds that there was no advance warning, the other out of concern that full frontal nudity would not be appropriate for sixth graders. But it was still a major issue for the Tallahassee Classical board.
“Parental rights trump everything else,” Bishop told the Huff Post, noting that the school was founded in response to “the woke indoctrination that was going on.”
“Parents choose this school because they want a certain type of education,” he added in Slate. “We’re not going to have College Board courses. We are not going to teach 1619 or CRT [critical race theory] shit.”
The unexpected controversy surrounding perhaps the world’s most famous sculpture mirrors a plot point in a 1990 episode of the The Simpsons. After successfully protesting the violence in the Itchy and rough cartoons, Marge Simpson is asked to help block a local exhibition of David, which critics call an “abomination” for its depiction of “evil” body parts. Marge, on the other hand, thinks the statue is a masterpiece that everyone in Springfield should see.
It is not the first time that the satire of the “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge” The episode was closely linked to real events – in 2016, a Russian woman launched a campaign to add clothing to a 16-foot-tall plastic copy of David on view in St. Petersburg. And, in 2021, a 3D printed copy of the work was exhibited with strategic barriers blocking the genitals from view at the Italian pavilion in Expo 2020 to Dubai.
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