Educate the american. Today they are going to share with us the original inspiration behind the book and why it is more important now to be finalized the education. Joining us today, president of the bill of Rights Institute, david has worked for 20 years to build strong Civic Education programs that engage the hearts and minds of young people, previously working at Hillside College and author of a book on the vital role of merely in politics. Welcome. Also joining us from the chair and liberty of the American Enterprise institute and the editor in chief of the dispatch and hes offered a chapter and how to educate an american. Finally, sarah morgan smith, director of faculty which seeks to restore and strengthen the capacity the American People constitutional selfgovernment. Thank you all for joining us. Two quick notes, who will through a q a so please submit questions in one of two ways. Either you can email nicole. Penn, pe and or submit questions to the , educating american aei. Second this webinar will be posted on the website. Im pleased to share cspan book tvs website will also air the discussion. It is fair to say the world has changed dramatically by first conceived this book. They want to gather a group of scholars to provide a companion of ideas forward reinvigorate education and ensure young people would value the nations history, understand a system of government and cherish its founding ideals but then when i describe as to earthquakes and the tremor occurred. The first earthquake is the covid19 pandemic. As someone who runs the network in its third month of Distance Learning for 2000 students and now we are doing massive amounts of scenario planning for what school will look like in the fall, the one thing certain is that instructional delivery and education is going to look radically different. Whats less discussed is evidence suggesting children who enter the pandemic embedded in strong married families were much more likely to be protected from financial and emotional stress. How would that change the urgency of what we teach young people about the importance of building Strong Families and a Strong Civil Society in a post covert world . The second earthquake, as i describe it, the New York Times 1619 project. If youre not familiar with 1619, it is the New York Times attempt at slavery at the center of our National Narrative and your 1619 as the founding of america, could not be 1776. Both the left and right and its premise being challenged by a group of scholars and activists who formed the 1776. Despite this, the 16th 19 product lead author on the pulitzer which will likely only accelerate distribution of a 1619 curriculum, which is already in thousands of urban schools, ensuring primarily low income kids of color grow up with an understanding of American History the correct use founding ideals were false when they were written in anti public racism runs into very dna of this country. How do we focus on education when theres a growing movement in urban schools . Beyond these two earthquakes is what i call the tremor, a periodic disruption that regularly reminds us of the crisis Civic Education that exists in america. New results revealing the percentage of students who demonstrate proficiency in content knowledge and skill was just 24 , 25 geography and 16 in u. S. History. In history, only 10 of eighth graders can explain why a south lost the civil war. These numbers unfortunately are nothing new in this has been repeated for years. Without framing of the challenges, how to educate an american the lead editor is going to kick us off. Given how the landscape has changed, how is it different changing or been enhanced . Thank you, appreciate that. Thank you for hosting and moderating but especially the great work you and your colleagues are doing. Keep to the Enterprise Institute for hosting this, it was supposed to be a live event once upon a time, covid obviously made that impossible but appreciate going ahead with this webinar. There are hundreds of you out there watching and we appreciate your time as well. We launched the project that would become how to educate an american from a place of frustration. Thats because the National EducationReform Movement across america after a nation at risk like running out of steam. Reform efforts still in some states and communities, they appear almost as often. Theres a version that they write about in his new book, we felt stuck. Standards and expectations are higher almost everywhere and they give to be. Treatment has risen a bit mostly in math and especially the lowest performance. Gaps have narrowed and many opportunities are wider. More families have options for the Children Education is no longer taken for granted but students who attend the district operated was closest to their homes. Many of these reforms driving ideas conservative in origin, making them happen by compromise. Centerleft and centerright ground, ground and proceeded big changes in a deeply entrenched Education System not successfully serving many children are deciding where they live. Bipartisanship is in tatters today in our national life. His chapter in the book, it is an opportunity for conservatives who recognize but the gains made possible through bipartisanship suppressing important differences and neglecting schooling in particular. It seemed like time to lead to these differences, highlight whats neglected, lost or distorted. Traveling education void and see if we can renegotiate terms before the next wave of bipartisan reform. That was the purpose of how to educate an american, a vision for tomorrows course. In it, almost 2000 public intellectuals and scholars responded to our request to help us address the Big Questions about where america finds itself in this moment in history, where we are going or should go in the role of primary secondary education and taking us there. As expected from this Incredible Group of creative thinkers, they set off in many directions and got, they revolve around a few key things. One thing around good character including moral education, properly construed but the critical work of helping young people armed purpose and muted big benefits of asking students to work hard and theres studies and beyond and injustice of discipline reform that reinforce soft bigotry of low expectations around student behavior. Second thing urged a broader view of what comes after elementary and secondary education. Any of the authors argued college may not be the only pathway to dignity or middleclass in a key goal should be informing teenagers about success sequence and encourage them to follow it. The sequence is to finish school, get a fulltime job, get married and start a family in the order. In im sure was a later, in his chapter in the success sequence and broader issues of Family Structure. The third thing, the one discussed today is recommitting students understanding of American History, civics and citizenship including a time that instilled in informed love of country even as it acknowledges past feeling and present challenges. I would focus fantastic chapter about rating the past about which we will hear more in a moment. Also the subject of area patriotic history, History Program american and also medical of the many ways our beloved nation has fallen short of this idea. How voters can promote an excellent, engaging version of Civics Education without relying solely on public institutions. It was a big part of the concluding chapter by former education secretary, william expressing his concern more than three decades after don hirsch warned us about cultural illiteracy, we still failed to teach our youngest students street and geography, science and the arts, all important in their own right but also essential if we are ever to win the war against illiteracy. When all this has in common is broad agreement around the problem. The problem simply put, the academic left has embraced revisionist history as the means to panic inherently unjust. This history jumped from lead colleges and universities into our high school, especially your textbooks, peoples history of the u. S. And more recently, the 16th 19 project. This has politicized our k12 history class rooms. Thats not to say history was taught perfectly in the past. Way back when, schools were too eager to cross over failures. Too often did so with boring lectures at the pound cannot be ignored. Those who lead and teach have to choose to respond. Will focus on the question of the right response. Some may dream of eradicating it from a patriotic version of history focused on great men and was one and perhaps that might actually happen to some extent in conservative, private and charter schools. Is that really the best solution . Some American Kids would be taught American History while others learn blue American History . Is there a way to teach red and blue and even purple history . It is patriotic and critical. Without avoiding the conflicts and controversies which would think history even more boring and on engaging for our teens. That is the challenge of the nations educators facing and i hope today might give them hope that it can be met. Thank you. Thank you for that great introduction. Now we are going to hear from david bob, president of the bill of Rights Institute. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for the excellent framing and for putting this outstanding volume of reflections together. In 2015 from the south korean government set in motion a plan by which a new book was unveiled. The correct textbook of history was its title. Mind you, it was south korea, not north korea. Designed not to remedy other textbooks, this resource has the government. It was a regime sanction textbook. You might be thinking, isnt it great we dont do that in the u. S. . It is true, we do not have official textbooks issued by the u. S. Federal government. We do have is a system in which the authority at the state of is lodged largely with bureaucrats. Where choosing textbooks created by a handful of the largest publishers. What we have done in essence, create a kind of cartel. This cartel has produced textbooks that want to be ideologically boring. Administrators say that teachers are usings textbooks half the time, he half the days that schools were in session, precovid19. Teachers say their using their official sanctioned textbooks about one out of five days. I think thats a good thing. And as several contributors point out, we need to do more to help district, charter, private, and home schooling teachers, parents, have ready access to viewpoint diverse resources. If the nate to challenge students how to become thoughtful patriotic citizens. Robby george make the case that the viewpoint diverse shy be a public and private good and the foundation on which we build a sound Civic Education. This part of the solution in particular suggests that the subtitle of the book the conservative vision for tomorrows schools might well be amended to, a vision for tomorrows schools for all americans. In other words, scientific education is near their conservative progressive, neither left or right, it does not push a political agenda but it does ennoble our policy. Civics teaches its students young and old the vibrancy of Civil Society. Civics is also inescapable. In this whether or not thats a course called civics for secondary school students, theyre constantly forming for good or ill a viewpoint on american ideas and institutions. For most Young Americans that world view is inchoate. The admits at the end of his essay that patriotic history needs guardrails to ensure it doesnt feel ideological narratives like the lost cause idea row lating to the civil war. Cohen advances what might be called the this book section on civic and History Education. Let me just summarize it using his words. Here i quote, without civics, our Political Institutions are reduced to valueless mechanisms, without history, there is no sink education. Civic education. Without Civic Education there are no citizens. Without citizen is there is no free republic. I endorse this line of argument and greatly appreciate robby georges reminder that civics and history, as well as philosophy must be grounded in humility. Our task is not to have another period of lamentation out scores but to take of the task of supporting teachersparents and administrators need to recognize it is a hard task to be viewpoint diverse, and i believe, having seen this for the last six years of the bill of Rights Institute, that many of our teachers in he social studies community are very much in favor of and indeed do every day a viewpoint diverse presentation of civics and history. There are resources we have created at the bill of Rights Institute that seek to be part of the solution. I just want to mention a cowl of of a couple of them. The website, teach. Mbri. Org hat hundreds, in fact thousands of different resources that teachers can choose from to support their work. As the next slide indicates these are topics that relate to thing that are often really hard subjects. For example, how do we balance liberty and security, talk but in a plural way religious liberty. How do we understand immigration. How do we note and celebrate those remarkable accomplishments done in the spirit of the declaration of independence like the 19th amend. At the next slide shows theres a lot of thing is think can be done to directly engage students. They just got done, for example, millions of students taking advance placement exams we had seminars and webinar that engaged students with the ideas and a rich conversation and on july 6th the bill of right itsen constitute will release a publication called life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, history of the american experiment. It employs 100 leading academic kickons who agree he on virtually nothing, to debate pointcounterpoint the key questions of hit. In so dog the students are invited to a conversation. A rich conversation that spans decades and centuries, of debate and dialogue, and we think the outcome of that kind of thing is the sound civic that this book rightfully points us in the direction of. Thank you so much. David, thank you very much. Think the points about Viewpoint Diversity and the fact that history is neither conservative or liberal, was tremendously resonate and david recommended a different subtitle for the book, not theres necessarily a conservative vision but a description for all a vision for all children. Are you ready to chang the subtitle. As soon as the press is ready to publish the sect edition with 80,000 copies this time, because of the demand that is this show is generating, yes, lets change the subtitle. Excellent. Checker now is your time to share your reflexes mike reflections. What war round help wow outsides to create this . Well, we have a number of hopes having to do with reinvigorating oat indication reform and invigorating people on the flight the effort on the right in the efforts, believing that while we are stauch support efforts School Choice, sometimes when conservatives think but education reform, they focus only on choice, and ignore all of the other things that are involved, quality education, quality choices, with kids who dont make choices, with kids who dont have parents who make choices for them, and with the whole variety of other things. So we felt a broader brush was needed to go at the future education reform issues. The book is 18 chapters and spans a bunch of topics, from gifted education to Family Structure to Student Engagement and student effort and so on. But we did want to talk primarily today pout the civics and history element of the book, which is much of it, as mike said and is a major theme around which men over authors congregate. Ive been a rate warrior since i was a history major in the late middle ages in college, and i have also despaired ill we say over the decades at boredom and elsewhere but the state of social studies education in american schools. And that social studies is typically what both history and civics are imbedded in, in american schools and its often a couldnt of a mishmash in the elementary and middle grades and then in high school, typically confined to a single years course in u. S. History and a half year or so one year course in sometimes called civics, sometimes american government. When i was teacher it was called problems of american democracy, court which had an imminent new England Public High School had no curriculum whatsoever. The teacher was told to go to lie area and find kid booked that kids could read. That was the state of the curriculum back then. And one of the thing david has usefully done is illustrate the extent of and variety and quality of many of the materials currently available in the modern world for educators who want them and no what theyre doing and are enabled within their schools or School Systems to use this stuff. Were no longer textbook dependent or at least we dont have to be. And there is a wealth of material there, but its frustrate it use is frustrated by some kind of endemic problems in social studies education. One of which is frankly poorly train teachers in many cases, who are assigned to teach social studies but never studied it themselves. Grew up in schools that 15 of kids are proficient in history on the eighth grade test