The assignment, set by a teacher at R. Dan Nolan Middle School in Bradenton, went viral last week after an extract from it was posted on Twitter by Ron Filipkowski, an attorney and political commentator. Filipkowski said it had been sent to him by a student’s parent.
The sixth-grade lesson, which has been reviewed in full by Newsweek, was called “How Does a Historian Work?”
The section quoted was about bias and referred to former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Judges, including those appointed by Trump, dismissed dozens of lawsuits filed after the election and William Barr, who served as Trump’s attorney general, has said the claims were bogus.
However, the assignment said: “The media is often biased and will add words that persuade you to think one way over another. Read these two statements made by reporters after the 2020 election.
“President Trump made claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
“President Trump made false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.”
The assignment went on: “The first sentence is just giving you information, while the second sentence leads you to believe he is wrong before you have all of the facts.”
A mother whose 11-year-old son received the homework told Newsweek that she had been “shocked” by it.
“I was helping him study for his history test, when I looked at question 7, which was discussing bias in the media,” said the woman, who asked not to be named because she feared her son could face retaliation.
“I was shocked that her example had to do with Trump. Seems like a very biased way of teaching bias. It was very reflective of our current political climate, which I feel is completely inappropriate for the classroom.”
The woman added that she knows several other parents were disturbed by the political content in the assignment.
Michael Barber, a spokesperson for the School District of Manatee County, said the assignment was handed out by a substitute teacher in a social studies class.
“This homework assignment does not meet the expectations of the School District of Manatee County,” Barber said in a statement provided to Newsweek.
“A thorough review of future homework lessons in this course is taking place and remaining issues related to this assignment will be addressed.
“Our students deserve the very best education we can provide in accordance with the curriculum and instructional standards set forth by the state of Florida.”
Barber added that the assignment was based on the first chapter of a state-approved textbook: the Florida edition of McGraw Hill’s Discovering Our Past — A History of the World: Early Ages.
