On Aug. 3, the AP College Board released a statement saying that the state of Florida “effectively banned” the AP Psychology course due to the material on gender and sexuality in the curriculum. Days later, on Aug. 9, the state commissioner of education Manny Diaz sent a letter informing superintendents that AP Psychology could be taught consistent with Florida law.
The ban on education on gender and sexuality in Florida began with the controversial “Parental Rights in Education” bill, dubbed by opponents the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The bill was first passed in March 2022, banning classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation from kindergarten through third grade. The law was expanded in April to ban instruction on these topics for all grades, unless required by existing state laws including health education, which students can opt out of.
Originally, state officials requested the gender and sexuality content be edited out of the AP Psychology curriculum in order to be taught in Florida schools. College Board refused to do so, leading to the initial ban by the Florida Department of Education. Despite being unbanned days later, six Florida school districts decided they would still not be offering the course this school year.
According to the College Board, the AP Psychology course asks students to “describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development.” The content on sex and gender is “actually only a small part in the motivation and emotion unit,” AP Psychology teacher Jennifer Bauer said.
Students were surprised to hear AP Psychology was being banned in Florida. “I was shocked when I saw that because I barely remembered learning about sexuality and gender. It was one lesson out of the whole school year,” former AP Psychology student and senior Elizabeth Misovec said.
Despite being a small part of the curriculum, Bauer finds it important “because you’re looking at the sexual development of adolescents and you’re looking at the sexual development of humans and that is part of psychology and our development.”
The AP Psychology course explores theories and methods of the scientific study of behavior and mental processes and includes units on each type of psychology. The course was designed to be the equivalent of a one-semester, introductory college course in psychology. “I would encourage all students to take AP Psychology because it explains who you are and what you do,” Bauer said.
Senior Alexa Ntchobo took AP Psychology last school year and found the class extremely valuable, shaping her future aspirations as she plans to major in psychology once in college. “AP Psychology educated me on the career opportunities within psych and helped me realize that I find mental health very important,” Ntchobo said.
