By Craig Pittman
NEWS HEADLINE: How Florida quietly removed climate change content from textbooks
“Good morning, class! Please take your seats. I’m your new science teacher, Mr. Ilg.
“You’re probably wondering what happened to your old teacher, Ms. Glowasky. She made one factual comment on Facebook about Charlie Kirk, got fired, sued the school board, and collected a $650,000 settlement. She told the vice principal it was like winning the First Amendment lottery.
“Anyway, please open your textbooks to page 77. Yes, you in the third row, you have your hand up. What’s your question?”
KID IN THIRD ROW: “Mr. Ilg, why aren’t we starting at the beginning of the textbook?
TEACHER (speaking slowly): “Good question. This is science class, and science is all about asking questions and looking for answers. In this case, the answer is, ‘Because the state Education Department wants me to skip over all that stuff about evolution.’ Now let’s get back to today’s lesson, which is about climate change. How much do you already know about that subject? Yes, you in the fifth row?”
KID IN THE FIFTH ROW: “It’s making, like, our world a hella lot hotter. Even at night.”
TEACHER: “Yes, anyone else? You in the second row?”
KID IN THE SECOND ROW: “The higher temperature is heating up the water and making hurricanes much more intense.”
TEACHER: “Excellent. You in the fourth row, your hand is up.”
KID IN THE FOURTH ROW: “Because of sea level rise, the storm surge goes much further inland. My mom’s in real estate and she says it’s changing where people are moving to in Florida.”
TEACHER: “Very good. Anyone else? You in the front row?”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW (holding up the textbook): “Mr. Ilg, while everyone’s been talking, I’ve been skimming this part of our textbook, and it doesn’t say climate change is bad. It even claims the excess carbon dioxide that’s killing our planet can actually HELP plants! What’s up with that?”
TEACHER (taken aback): “Oh, uh… You noticed that, huh?”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW (sounding disgusted): “Well c’mon, Mr. Ilg, we LIVE in this world. We can see what’s happening. We’re not stupid. Although this textbook seems to think we are.”
A world of information
TEACHER: “Okay, let me try to explain.” (Inhales deeply, then exhales.) “The Florida Department of Education is the branch of state government that oversees the selection of textbooks you get. A couple of years ago, the department told publishers they should play down the climate change stuff in Florida’s textbooks because the science isn’t settled.”
(Someone makes a derisive raspberry sound.)
TEACHER (narrowing his eyes at the sound): “You in the back, did you have something to say?”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “Yeah, I said (makes raspberry sound again). That’s a bigger bunch of bull than the University of South Florida mascot.”
TEACHER: “What makes you say that?”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “Because the scientists DO agree that climate change is real and it’s real bad. It’s the politicians who refuse to accept reality.”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW: “Yeah, like that 80-year-old loser in the White House who keeps saying it’s a hoax. Everybody knows he’s just trying to suck up to the oil industry dudes who helped him get re-elected.” (Multiple kids nod their heads.)
KID IN BACK ROW: “Yeah, him saying it’s a hoax is about as believable as him blaming vandals for what he did to the Washington Reflecting Pool.”
TEACHER: “Now wait a minute. Back up a second. How do you know the scientists are all in agreement?”
KID IN THE BACK ROW <rolls his eyes>: “Do you think we get all our information from our textbooks like kids back in the ’50s used to do?”
TEACHER: “I … uh, you know I never thought about it.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “Well, we don’t. We have access to the internet and we use it. And I mean use it a LOT.”
KID IN THE SECOND ROW: “Right. Like, we know how to search for answers online. We’ve been doing that for years. Plus, there’s a lot of social media we can use now. We can get information from TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. We’ve got a world full of sources to tell us what’s going on beyond the classroom and these textbooks.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “Right. For instance, I follow Greta Thunberg on Instagram and Hank Green on TikTok.”
KID IN THE THIRD ROW: “Oh, you should try Ecotok Collective! They’re awesome.”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW (waving a hand around, making her bracelets clink together): “See? All these accounts act like an instant fact-check about what’s in these weaselly textbooks.”
TEACHER (in a voice full of wonder): “I had no idea.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “Heck, there are even video games about climate change, and, like, not one of them tries to claim that it might be a GOOD thing.”
KID IN THE FOURTH ROW: “Is there one with Mario and Luigi?”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “No — and don’t even ask about Minecraft.”
The tell-tale turtles
KID IN THE THIRD ROW: “You know, Mr. Ilg, we have, like, an environment club here in school. We talk about issues and bring in special speakers. We were just talking about climate change, like, I dunno, two weeks ago.”
KID IN THE SECOND ROW: “Yeah, like, my aunt came in and talked to the club about what it’s like volunteering with her sea turtle rescue group. She said the temperature of the sand, like, determines whether sea turtle eggs hatch out as male or female turtles. And she said that the sand has been, like, sooooo hot over the past 15 years that they’ve seen all or mostly all female sea turtles — hardly any males.”
KID IN THE THIRD ROW (nodding vigorously): “Oh man, that was so weird!”
TEACHER (speaking slowly): “I didn’t know that was happening. That’s a biological marker of climate change that’s pretty hard to ignore, isn’t it?”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “You’re right it’s hard to ignore, Mr. Ilg. But even though it’s been happening for so long, she told us the politicians continue to ignore it because it doesn’t fit what they believe.”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW: “You shouldn’t be surprised at us being aware of this stuff, Mr. Ilg. Kids like us have been, like, on the front lines of the fight against climate change. A few years ago, a bunch of kids filed a lawsuit over it. One of them was a 10-year-old from Florida.”
TEACHER (nodding): “I kinda remember that. Whatever happened to that case?”
KID IN THE BACK ROW (consulting his phone): “Says here the Supreme Court shot ‘em down last year.”
KID IN THE SECOND ROW (sounding angry): “That bunch of creeps! They’re gonna kill us all. How many of them own stock in fossil fuels?”
Fossil fuel fooling
KID IN THE FRONT ROW: “Hey, do you remember the Great American Teach-In last year? One of our speakers was Dawn Shirreffs from the Environmental Defense Fund.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “The Environmental Defense Fund has a cool TikTok too.”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW: “Right. So anyway, she was talking about how we’ve got to be ready for this kind of stuff, because the fossil fuel industry has spent years spreading misinformation about the climate. They’re desperate to fool people so they can keep selling this product that’s polluting the atmosphere, ruining the world, and killing people.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “Yeah, plus they’ve been spending beaucoup bucks on campaign contributions, too. Buying loyalty.”
KID IN THE THIRD ROW: “She also talked about how politicians who sell out to these people wind up undermining, like, the confidence we have in government and in education.”
TEACHER (appalled): “Oh, I hope that’s not true.”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW: “She warned us to be careful about anyone trying to mislead us about what fossil fuels are doing to our future. Especially the way they influence politicians. And, apparently, textbooks.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: (Clears throat.) “So, let’s talk about which politicians have been pushing for weakening Florida textbooks and trying to fool us students.”
A current events discussion
TEACHER (looking uncomfortable): “I’d rather not get into any political stuff. I’m not Ms. Glowasky.”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW: “Think of it as, like, a current events discussion. We’re supposed to have those from time to time, right? So, what we’re wondering is, who twisted the arm of the textbook publishers to play down the role climate change has in everything that’s going wrong?”
KID IN THE THIRD ROW: “I wonder if it was the Florida Legislature. My uncle is a pilot at MacDill Air Force Base, and he was cracking up last year when the Legislature banned ‘chemtrails.’ He was laughing so hard he was falling over. They cut climate change out of the law like it’s no big deal, but they’re freaking out about chemtrails? He said anyone with any sense knows those don’t exist. Banning them was like banning the Skunk Ape.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “No, I bet it was the governor. That smells like his work.”
TEACHER (speaking cautiously): “The Education Department is under Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW: “Figures. I remember he’s the guy claiming that slavery wasn’t all that bad.”
KID IN THE FOURTH ROW: “Didn’t DeSantis work as a teacher somewhere?”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “Yeah, I think it was in Georgia.”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW (looking at her phone): “Yeah, here’s a New York Times story about that. Says he spent a year working as a teacher at a private school. Some students thought he was cool because he was a jock, but some said he came across as smug and superior. One Black student said he treated her badly because of her skin color. And he liked partying with the seniors, even though that was against the rules.”
KID IN THE THIRD ROW: “Can you imagine what would happen if he tried that now?”
KID IN THE FRONT ROW: “Oh man, this is wild! Listen to this: The story says he made some weird comments about the Civil War and so, for the school’s video yearbook, some of the kids made a video that made fun of him.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW (in a speculative voice): “I wonder if he’s devoted the rest of his life to getting revenge.”
TEACHER (sounding skeptical): “That seems a trifle far-fetched.”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “No, no, hear me out! He decides to get vengeance on the whole education system. He works his way up to being governor, then takes a wrecking ball to the schools. He pays teachers so poorly they leave. He shuts down their unions so they can’t fight back. He turns the censors loose on the school libraries. He gives so much money to private schools that a lot of public ones have to close. Then, as the finishing touch, he undermines confidence in the textbooks.”
TEACHER (shaking his head): “That’s crazy. What’s your name, young man?”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “My name is Danny — Danny Glowasky.”
TEACHER: “You mean …”
KID IN THE BACK ROW: “Yeah, that was my mom who used to teach this class.”
TEACHER: (Stands with his mouth open, then closes it and clears his throat.) “OK, this concludes our discussion of climate change. Let’s move on to the next section of our textbook, which is about — oh shoot. It’s about sexual reproduction.”
Craig Pittman is a native Floridian. In 30 years at the Tampa Bay Times, he won numerous state and national awards for his environmental reporting. He is the author of six books. In 2020 the Florida Heritage Book Festival named him a Florida Literary Legend. Craig is co-host of the "Welcome to Florida" podcast. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and children.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:
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Wouldn’t it be awesome (and inspiring) if you were right about kids!
Skipping the chapters on evolution avoids one of the obvious conclusions: There are some people with an evolutionary advantage that offers protection against intense ultraviolet radiation. Nevertheless, Florida has a history of devaluing such people.