Curriculum Project
 

New Materials In Development with Anticipated Release in Late October.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic it significantly unsettled people’s lives all around the world, turning routines on their heads and leaving people isolated and vulnerable. Many parents transitioned to work from home, while others may continue to face substantial economic difficulty or increased danger or stress in the workplace. Schools sent students home, leaving teachers, parents, and students struggling to adjust to distance learning.

Navigating the complex and developing situation of contagious sickness, social distance, and countless days at home we recognized that families desired educational resources that can be obtained online and at no cost. Out of this came the opportunity for resources contained within a kit that will add some educational fun to strengthen you in maintaining the hope in adversity which the Martyrs of La Florida modeled so well.

 The Goal

We owe students an accurate, nuanced, and, when possible, inspiring account of the past. Countless priests, caciques, soldiers, farmers, parents, and children of the land the Spanish called La Florida died rather than deny what they believed to be true; their stories rightly merit a place in the education of young people today. The Heroes of La Florida Curriculum Project will equip educators to hand on the stories of the heroes of the La Florida Mission Period in academically demanding and imaginatively engaging ways.
 

                                                                        Curriculum Design

We are working to create and provide resources––unit plans, lesson plans, primary source excerpts, biographies, and illustrations––appropriate for students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. The Catholic people whose stories we seek to tell understood the source and the purpose of freedom. They strove to make their world more loving and just, and they preferred to die rather than lie out of fear. As such, these men, women, and children can be regarded as worthy examples for all people, not just for Catholics.

To this end, we are developing diverse resources for use in Catholic, Christian, home, and even public schools throughout and beyond the state of Florida. All resources will be calibrated to Florida’s Sunshine State Standards and will seek to promote in students a true affection for what is good, true, and beautiful.

Catholic school resources will consider explicitly the place of martyrdom within the larger Christian narrative and the universal call to holiness. Public school materials will emphasize in these stories the virtues necessary for the pursuit of justice and the practice of freedom––virtues which yet remain relevant and desirable universally in today’s public sphere.
 

Broader Context

It is easy, but wrong, to tell the story of Florida’s past in a way that oversimplifies the situation and thereby glosses over the incredible difficulty through which many individuals lived with great grace and virtue. We hope to provide a space for understanding those Spaniards who throughout their lives opposed the oppression of indigenous peoples and those indigenous peoples of the Apalachee, Timucua, Guale, and other tribes of the Southeast, whose comprehension of Catholic teaching guided their opposition to European abuses. These people, neglected by history books, together defended the faith and the freedom of La Florida with perseverance lasting unto death.

Helped by the In God We Trust Foundation, the Black and Indian Missions, and the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, we seek to translate good history into good educational resources for the sake of helping Floridians encounter the hidden heroism of their state’s history.

In God We Trust Foundation



Learn more about the In God We Trust Foundation by visiting the website: 
www.InGodWeTrustFoundation.com
Purchase a special license plate to supprt the mission by clicking the image of the plate above.

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