College that helped write South Dakota’s new social studies standards ends partnership with Florida school over Michelangelo’s sculpture of David

HILLSDALE, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan college will no longer partner with a Florida charter school after the school’s principal resigned due to complaints sixth graders were exposed to pornography during a Renaissance art lesson that included Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture. MLive.com reports Thursday (March 30, 2023) that Tallahassee Classical School no longer is affiliated with Hillsdale College, a small, Christian classical liberal arts college in southern Michigan. Tallahassee Classical School uses Hillsdale’s classical education curriculum. Hillsdale spokeswoman Emily Stack Davis says the Florida school’s license to use Hillsdale’s curricular materials has been revoked. Hope Carrasquilla resigned last week at the Florida school following an ultimatum from the school board’s chairman.

HILLSDALE, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan college has ended its partnership with a Florida charter school whose principal was forced to resign after a parent complained sixth graders were exposed to pornography during a lesson on Renaissance art that included Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture.

A Hillsdale College spokesperson said Tallahassee Classical School no longer is affiliated with the small, Christian classical liberal arts college in southern Michigan, MLive.com reported Thursday (March 30, 2023).

“This drama around teaching Michelangelo’s ‘David’ sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become a distraction from, and a parody of, the actual aims of classical education,” spokesperson Emily Stack Davis wrote in a statement. “Of course, Hillsdale’s K-12 art curriculum includes Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and other works of art that depict the human form.”

Tallahassee Classical School was licensed to use Hillsdale’s classical education curriculum, but its license was “revoked and will expire at the end of the school year,” Davis said.

Hillsdale provides K-12 curriculum in partnership with dozens of charter schools across the country.

The Florida school’s principal Hope Carrasquilla resigned last week following an ultimatum from the school board’s chairman.

Carrasquilla told the Tallahassee Democrat one parent complained the material was pornographic and two other parents said they wanted to be notified of the lesson before it was given to their children. The instruction also included Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” painting and Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus.”

Tallahassee Classical School did not immediately respond to phone messages left Thursday seeking comment.

After Carrasquilla resigned, the Florence museum housing “David” on Sunday invited parents and students from Tallahassee Classical School to visit the statue in person. Florence’s mayor also tweeted an invitation to Carrasquilla so he could personally honor her.

The “David” statue’s nudity has been part of a centuries-old debate about art pushing boundaries and the rules of censorship. In the 1500s, metal fig leaves covered the genitals of statues like “David” when the Roman Catholic Church deemed nudity as immodest and obscene.

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Visitors flocked to see Michelangelo’s David sculpture in Florence on Tuesday (March 28, 2023), following an uproar over a Florida school’s decision to force the resignation of the principal over complaints about a lesson featuring the Renaissance masterpiece.

Tourists, many of them Americans on spring break or studying abroad, posed for selfies in front of the giant marble statue, which features the Biblical David, naked with a sling over his shoulder and a rock in his hand, ready for battle with Goliath.

Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia, which houses the sculpture, reopened Tuesday after its weekly Monday closure, and both tourists and locals alike couldn’t get over the controversy.

“It’s part of history,” said Isabele Joles from Ohio, who is studying French and Italian art with her school group. “I don’t understand how you can say it’s porn.”

She and other visitors were reacting to the decision by Tallahassee Classical School board to pressure Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after an image of the David was shown to a sixth-grade art class.

Carrasquilla believes the board targeted her after three parents complained because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude image would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue, which is considered the height of Renaissance sculpture, pornographic. The school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.

Over the weekend, both Florence’s mayor and the museum director voiced incredulity over the ruckus and issued invitations for the ousted principal and the school community to come and see the sculpture for themselves.

“We are talking about the roots of Western culture, and ‘David’ is the height, the height of beauty,” museum director Cecilie Hollberg said in an interview Tuesday, as tourists brushed past her snapping selfies with the statue.

The controversy wasn’t only a topic of conversation in Florence. On Monday night in Tallahassee, a large crowd showed up for a school board meeting with public comment on the issue of the David statue controversy lasting over an hour, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. Some parents and teachers criticized the board and even asked chairman Barney Bishop to step aside.

“Given the dissatisfaction of all these parents with your leadership, would you be willing to lead us by integrity by resigning?” asked teacher Ben Steigner.

Bishop refused, saying he intends to remain as chairman through the end of his term in May and then another year on the board, the newspaper reported. The five trustees are elected by themselves, not the parents, and serve three-year-terms. New Principal Cara Wynn told the school board that nine students had left the school since the David controversy began, but that three had enrolled.

Tallahassee Classical is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, it operates almost entirely independently of the local school district and is sought out by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum. About 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three-year-old institution, which is now on its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on educational issues.

The Florida Department of Education, however, has distanced itself from the controversy and the school’s decision.

“The Statue of David has artistic and historical value. Florida encourages instruction on the classics and classical art, and would not prohibit its use in instruction,” the department said in a statement. “The matter at the Tallahassee Classical School is between the school and an employee, and is not the effect of state rule or law.”

At the museum on Tuesday, tourist Brian Stapley from Seattle Washington said he was sad for the school’s children.

“It’s one of the most incredible parts of our history,” he said as he waited on line to get into the museum. “I feel incredibly sorry for the children that don’t get to see it.”

MARCH 27, 2023:

ROME (AP) — A Florence museum and the city’s mayor are inviting parents and students from a Florida charter school to visit and see Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. The invitation comes after the school principal was forced to resign following parental complaints that an image of the nude Renaissance masterpiece was shown to a sixth-grade art class. The Italian response has been incredulous and highlights how the U.S. culture wars are often perceived in Europe. Even amid a rise in right-wing sentiment and governance on the continent, the Renaissance and its masterpieces are generally above the fray. Former Principal Hope Carrasquilla said she is honored by the mayor’s invitation and she might take him up on it.

ROME (AP) — The Florence museum housing Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpiece the David on Sunday (March 26, 2023) invited parents and students from a Florida charter school to visit after complaints about a lesson featuring the statue forced the principal to resign.

Florence Mayor Dario Nardella also tweeted an invitation for the principal to visit so he can personally honor her. Confusing art with pornography was “ridiculous,” Nardella said.

The board of the Tallahassee Classical School pressured Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after an image of the David was shown to a sixth-grade art class. The school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.

The incredulous Italian response highlighted how the U.S. culture wars are often perceived in Europe, where despite a rise in right-wing sentiment and governance, the Renaissance and its masterpieces, even its naked ones, are generally free of controversy. Sunday’s front page of the Italian daily publication Corriere della Sera featured a cartoon by its leading satirist depicting David with his genitals covered by an image of Uncle Sam and the word “Shame.”

Carrasquilla believes the board targeted her after three parents complained about a lesson including a photo of the David, a 5-meter tall (17 foot) nude marble sculpture dating from 1504. The work, reflecting the height of the Italian Renaissance, depicts the Biblical David going to fight Goliath armed only with his faith in God.

Carrasquilla has said two parents complained because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue pornographic.

Carrasquilla said in a phone interview Sunday that she is “very honored” by the invitations to Italy and she may accept.

“I am totally, like, wow,” Carasquilla said. “I’ve been to Florence before and have seen the David up close and in person, but I would love to go and be a guest of the mayor.”

Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the David resides, expressed astonishment at the controversy.

“To think that David could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” Hollberg said in a telephone interview.

She invited the principal, school board, parents and student body to view the “purity” of the statue.

Tallahassee Classical is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, it operates almost entirely independently of the local school district and is sought out by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum.

About 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three-year-old institution, which is now on its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on educational issues.

Barney Bishop, chairman of Tallahassee Classical’s school board, has told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a part in Carrasquilla’s ouster, it wasn’t the only factor. He has declined to elaborate, while defending the decision.

“Parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture,” Bishop said in an interview with Slate online magazine.

Several parents and teachers plan to protest Carrasquilla’s exit at Monday night’s school board meeting, but Carrasquilla said she isn’t sure she would take the job back even if it were offered.

“There’s been such controversy and such upheaval,” she said. “I would really have to consider, ‘Is this truly what is best?’”

Marla Stone, head of humanities studies at the American Academy in Rome, said the Florida incident was another episode in escalating U.S. culture wars and questioned how the statue could be considered so controversial as to warrant a prior warning.

“What we have here is a moral crusade against the body, sexuality, and gender expression and an ignorance of history,” Stone said in an email. “The incident is about fear, fear of beauty, of difference, and of the possibilities embedded in art.”

Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpted the David between 1501-1504 after being commissioned by the Cathedral of Florence. The statue is the showpiece of the Accademia, and helps draw 1.7 million visitors each year to the museum.

“It is incredibly sought-after by Americans who want to do selfies and enjoy the beauty of this statue,” Director Hollberg said.

The museum, like many in Europe, is free for student groups. There was no indication that any trip would be subsidized by the city or museum.