Students in Florida's public schools will soon be learning an interpretation of McCarthyism and the Cold War fight against communism that is steeped in the rhetoric of that era, after state education officials voted to approve sweeping new social studies teaching standards Thursday.
The standards, which represent the core content Florida students are expected to learn, detail a communist “infiltration” of Civil Rights advocacy groups, include instruction on the use of “'McCarthyism' as an insult” and reference “slander against anti-communists," including the terms "red-baiter and Red Scare."
