The Daily Signal - Civics Education for the Next Generation

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

The value of civics education in middle and high school cannot be overstated. The Founding Fathers knew that if America did not hold fast to the principles they had set forth in our founding documents, the great American experiment would surely fail. David Bobb, President of the Bill of Rights Institute joins The Daily Signal podcast to discuss how they are providing civics education to students across America, and pushing back against the false narratives regarding America's founding. Plus we share a good news story about how you can support our veterans during National Medial of Honor Day. If you would like to mail a letter to a National Media of Honor recipient, visit https://www.janinestange.com/moh/ for all the details. The Deadline to get your notes in the mail is March 18, 2020! Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, March 2nd. I'm Robert Blewey. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we are featuring Rob's conversation with David Bob, president of the Bill of Rights Institute. David talks about the critical need for civics education in America. We also have your letters to the editor and a good news story about Medal of Honor recipients and how this month you can thank them for their service and commitment to our nation.

Before we jump into today's show, Rob and I would like to tell you about Heritage's Index of Military Strength, a one-stop shop for all of your questions concerning America's military readiness. The Heritage Foundation's Index of Military Strength exists to provide government officials and the American public with a detailed breakdown of the capabilities of each branch of our military. Learn how many active-duty aircraft our Air Force has today, the threats facing America, and our competitive advantages. There's much more in the Index of Military Strength. To learn more about the Index of Military Strength, you can visit Heritage, org slash military dash strength.

Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? If you want to understand what's happening at the court, subscribe to SCOTUS 101, a Heritage Foundation podcast, breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by David Bob. He's the president of the Bill of Rights Institute and someone who is passionate about civics education. David, welcome to the show. Thank you, Rob.

Well, it is great to have you here in our studio. You know, the Bill of Rights Institute is an organization that develops educational resources and programs for both teachers and students all across this great country. Tell our listeners more about your work and who you are reaching. The Bill of Rights Institute has been around for two decades. We're focused on supporting teachers in the really vital work of civics education. There are hundreds of thousands of teachers. that every day get up and think about how do we give students a notion of freedom and opportunity?

How do we teach them about the founding principles and address all of the current events that are in the news as well? Civics was really a preoccupation of the founding fathers. They thought of it not as something that was the responsibility of the federal government so much, but the responsibility of communities. Lately, I've been thinking about a quotation that Thomas Jefferson had when he said, you know, citizenship is not just about voting one time a year. It's really an everyday thing. It's an everyday responsibility. And if you think of that idea, that notion of everyday citizenship, today we've sometimes reduced it to just voting and for kids kind of recycling or, you know, figuring out ways that you can get the government to do something. something and mobilize people.

I think the notion that we're really trying to do at the Bill of Rights Institute is very different. And that's to say to students, you have rights, you have responsibilities. What are you going to do to a noble civil society? You know, it seems that there is a growing interest and even a concern in our country over the lack of civics education. So you're certainly addressing that. I mean, just recently I've read that Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, wants to have a test

that high school students take. I know there's students in Rhode Island who are suing the state and the governor because they feel like they have a lack of civics education. Tell us why it is that you're sensing this reaction from students or parents all across the country and how you're going about responding to it. There is a huge interest. I think it's really encouraging. I think, you know, young people, teenagers were really focused at the Bill of Rights Institute

in reaching high school students, middle school students, supporting the the teachers that every day take up the task of instructing students in American history, civics and what's come to be known as social studies. Students feel polarization in a different way than adults do. One of our students who attends a week-long constitutional boot camp we run called Constitutional Academy, it's here in the Washington, D.C. area, said, I wonder, can I disagree with my friends? And will they still be my friends? So one of the things I think that we're seeing is that teachers and students and then parents in the community are trying to grapple with what is this thing?

You can kind of feel it in the air that really bespeaks the division. And people are wondering, how do we get beyond that? Not to just some kind of kumbaya moment. Because I think the key thing here is how do we learn to disagree amicably? You know, the constitutional convention was a remarkable meeting. It laid down some ground rules. It said, we're going to lay out a charter of our freedoms. We're going to take inspiration from the Declaration.

And for four months, the members of that convention debated things. They came out with what sometimes by our textbooks is characterized just as a bundle of compromises. Kind of like it's the same thing that we've seen happen this week on Capitol Hill. But in fact, there was something really higher going on there. Because what they were saying is human beings have rights. The purpose of government is to protect those rights. And what I think we're feeling now is that many people are awakening to the fact that we've neglected this subject area in our schools. But even more we've neglected to take it up as families, as communities.

Because I think it's a strange thing in my mind. You mentioned the lawsuit to imagine suing the state government to say, I've not gotten a good education. Because ultimately, I think education is not so much a right as it is a responsibility. And ultimately, what we're trying to do is empower teachers to be able to do the things in their classrooms that they really see as important. So we're responding to this need. I think it's really encouraging that there's a lot of people awakening across the country to the need for civics. It is. And I'm certainly glad that you are there to provide the resources that you do.

You mentioned one of the programs that you offer. You mentioned that you're working with middle school and high school students. Can you talk in more detail about some of the other resources that are available through the Bill of Rights Institute? All of our resources are available free online. You can go to Bill of Rights Institute.org. Teachers, it's interesting. We think of oftentimes the textbooks that they're handed. In the state of Texas, for example, taxpayers pay $400 million every year just for textbooks.

The good news is a lot of those textbooks now gather dust because what the teachers are doing in a quite entrepreneurial way, is pulling together different resources. They might go to YouTube. They go to the Bill of Rights Institute website. They go to other places, and they cobble together a kind of curriculum. Because what they're trying to do is address, and I think this goes to the polarization point, these hot topics, right? If you're met with questions from your students, hey, what about impeachment? Well, you want to do, you have to teach certain things over the course of a year, but you also want to be able to address those hot,

button controversial issues. And what BRI does is allow the teacher to bridge that. So we have more than 2,500 resources. We're publishing this year a comprehensive history of the United States. We're doing that with a partner out of Rice University called OpenStacks, which has done a lot of work in making free resources available to college students. And what's really great, I think, and one of the things that we see that's really exciting, is that teachers, when they have these materials and strong materials that are oriented around the founding principles, reorient their discussion.

We base everything we do on the principles of the American founding, on those constitutional core ideas, and also the moral and civic virtues that are requisite of responsible citizenship. And when you put things in terms of principles and virtues and public schools, you might. think, well, don't we have kind of a disjunct there? Isn't there a real gap? But in fact, the Bill of Rights Institute has seen one out of four teachers in the country come to rely on our materials and participate in what for teachers is the professional development programs that help them not only keep up their teaching credential, but deepen their knowledge of our Republican form of government. That is so great to hear and that impact is impressive. Now, I recently heard you give a presentation and you shared some of the materials with me. And I was really

impressed with the quality of the work. We know from our work at the Daily Signal how important stories are to connecting students and kind of explaining issues that might not necessarily be as easily digestible. And so you have a new project or some resources called Heroes and Villains. I want to start there. Can you tell us more about what you're doing with that? You know, I think it's important when you teach American history to give the full access to students to the most challenging questions. In an era in which students have in their hip pockets and their smartphones, all of human knowledge, a lot of times they're asking, why does this stuff, you know, from 200, 250 years

ago? You know, here we are six years away from marking the 250th birthday of the United States of America. Is that going to be a celebration or is it going to be a lament? Some would have us think that there was very little to celebrate about 1776. And yet we think at the Bill of Rights Institute that when you go to those stories and you understand what kind of sacrifice and struggle went into that. When you look at the struggle and sacrifice that was then picked up by the abolitionists, by the suffragettes, by those who fought for the civil rights of all Americans, including African Americans in the 20th century, those stories, when you put them in human form, bring to students a great answer as to the, the why. Why does this matter? Why does it matter that a bunch of people got together and said,

you know what? In the history of humanity, most regimes have been oriented around accident and force, not reflection and choice. That's a big deal. We think it's worth celebrating. But we also think it's worth grappling with the really tough questions. And that's what good historians do. That's what we try to do in conjunction with academics and teachers all across the country. You know, this 2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, women's suffrage. You mentioned the suffragist. You have another project called Votes for Women.

Tell us more about it. Well, you know, it's one of those things that when you think of what happened at Seneca Falls and the look back by the Americans, both women and men, who said, women should have the right to vote. That's something that's an extension of the idea and the ideas that are part of the declaration. You know, Frederick Douglass was one of the only men to speak at the Seneca Falls Convention when they looked back and said, it's not only men who have the right to vote, but it should be women as well. And so there was an argument. And what we do in that curriculum for teachers and students is bring out the nature of that argument.

But even more than the story, which I think is really important, that story, that story of how women came to have the right to vote in 2020, like you said, it'll be 100 years, is how do you do social change within a constitutional context? I think that's one of the big questions that Americans have to face today. Certainly is. Do we care enough about the constitutional framework that we want to uphold that, or do we want to march in a very different direction? And there are forces arrayed that would say, you know,

the Constitution was a relic of the past. It doesn't have any purchase on us today. And what we find is that teachers and students across the country are hungry for a conversation in which they grapple with that question. And the good news that I'd share with you today is that there are so many teachers, tens of thousands, that every day are dedicated to putting these questions in a framework that would say the Constitution is worth our efforts as citizens to uphold, to champion. and to cherish. You know, we are, I'm glad you raised that point. We're seeing increasingly efforts. One that comes to mind is the New York Times 1619 project in which accompanying the magazine issue, which came out earlier in August, I believe, of 2019, there was a school curriculum. My question for you is this. We've seen some leading historians, not necessarily people who are identified in the left or

the right, just historians in their own right, come out and criticize it for lacking the context or perspective that they think would be informed. What are your thoughts on efforts like that? You know, I've read the 1619 project, went through the lesson plans. I was struck by one in particular. It was what's called erasure poetry, and it asked students to take the Declaration of Independence and to blot out all of the sections so that the remaining words would be the poem that they wanted to create themselves. Think of what that exercise. Think of what that exercise treats and really trains the minds of our young people to say that the Declaration is a document mainly to be obliterated.

The Declaration was the thing that gave Frederick Douglass the hope and realization that he was a person deserving of rights and dignity. The founders were not perfect. No human being is. And I think the remarkable thing that we need to impress upon young people is not that we had in the founding of the United States an answer and a kind of determination of everyone's rights in their in their fullness. We didn't, but we did lay down the marker and we said that all human beings are created

equal. And that was a marker that both indicted some of the founders' own actions as slaveholders and set a standard by which Americans in future generations could look to and try to aspire to. The 1619 project gets none of that aspirational element. And I think when you look at Alan Galzo and Jim McPherson and James Oaks and Gordon Wood and others that have come to criticize that and then be utterly dismissed by the editors of that project as irrelevant, well, who anointed them as preeminent historians? That's been some of the response. And I think the debate that's ensued is a good one. And that's the kind of thing that I think students can actually

enter into. One of those people that I just mentioned, Alan Gelzo, is a contributor to the Bill of Rights Institute, Comprehensive History of the United States, that we just debuted at the National Council for the Social Studies. We believe in viewpoint diversity. And what I lament about some of our publications, including the 1619 project, is there's not even a pretense of viewpoint diversity. It's just saying this is it. And unfortunately, it can amount to a kind of consistent. conspiracy theory. That is the kind of thing that we see in Howard Zinn, where here's history in a box. Here's the people who did all of the wrong and we're going to blame them. And here's the people that do all of the right. And in fact, that's not the way that history works. What you have to do,

I think, is have an intellectually honest conversation. What we found is that teenagers are capable of doing a lot. And if you treat them as curious and engaged, interlocutors, oftentimes they rise to the occasion. And the thing that I find is that teachers all across the country mainly do not engage in conspiracy mongering. They're mainly interested in trying to wrestle with these questions and put really important ideas in front of their students and then rely on those conversations to help propel those students into the fullness of citizenship.

You know, as a father of a fifth grader and second grader, I'm not quite a at the middle school or high school level yet, but I can say that they are starting to learn American history, particularly Virginia history, in their classes. And my experience has been positive as well. I really don't feel that they are bringing in a personal political perspective, even if they may happen to have those views. They are really interested in teaching history and looking for resources that are available. So again, thank you for the work that you're doing. I have to ask, you know, you have such a passion for this issue. Tell us how. how that developed. What is your own background? I know you spent time with Hillsdale College. Of course, Dr. Larry

R. and a member of the Heritage Foundation Board of Trustees. What led you down this path? I have to credit early conversations with my parents where they were bringing up, not necessarily in a political context, but just the issues of the day. And then I had a great teacher who every day we would start class with somebody giving a presentation in middle school. where it was a current event and the connection was made to how does this subject that can seem kind of abstract or, you know, what does the federal government or some state policy have to do with me, you know, in seventh grade, right? But what he asked us to do was to say, what significance does it have to the world, to the United States, and then to us as students? And it really hit me as a young person that this stuff really can have purchase on us and that we can be involved in an important way, not only in the fairs of government, but in civil society. And so I took that love of politics through my education and then working at Hillsdale and then became convinced that while I love working with college students and the public at large, that we really do need to support young people, even at a younger age.

and change that trajectory. You mentioned your kids' age. I have two who are, you know, a fifth grader and a second grader. And you can see those light bulbs turning on. And what's a shame is that too often, I think, because of a kind of unintentional intimidation that's come about, you know, most teachers don't want to come in and have their political views front and center. But they do want to talk about these important current events. And oftentimes what will happen is a building principal.

or a superintendent, legal counsel says, you know what, we really don't want to have a melee here. You know, kids aren't going to be able to handle these questions. Let's just leave all that stuff behind. And I think that's really a mistake because here is we're going to be entering into 2020. And yes, it's going to be a contentious and hard-fought election at every level. But shouldn't our young people be introduced to the habits of heart and mind that will help them deal with these matters of importance, wrestle with these questions, come to their own opinions in a way that is intellectually honest, that's done with care and concern for civility, for toleration, for the virtues that ultimately

uphold freedom. I think that's a cause that's worth working on. Certainly, certainly is. As you reflect back on the work that you've done at the Bill of Rights Institute, can you share with our listener some of the biggest impacts that you feel you've done? had, both on teachers and students, maybe a story if there's one that comes to mind of somebody who's been particularly impacted by the work. One young person said at the conclusion of one of our programs, you know, I've heard more

in this short program about the founding fathers and the positive impact that they had on our country and on the world than I did an entire advanced placement U.S. history class. And I think it's that sort of thing, you know, multiplied many times over. We work with 53,000 educators across the country. Each of those educators every year teaches 100 or more students. That's a huge ripple effect. And what we find is that when teachers say, it's hard out there, you're helping me meet the needs of students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. One gentleman teaches in Southern California, and he wrote us and they said,

He considers it a great privilege every day to teach the students mainly of those who are new to this country, the kids of those who are new to this country. And he said he gives them the ideas of American exceptionalism in language that they can understand in a way that they can own those ideas. And he credits the Bill of Rights Institute for helping him throughout the last two decades of his teaching career become that kind of a teacher. That's why we do what we do. That's great. That's great to hear. If we have teachers listening or parents, what would you tell them if they wanted to find more information about the Bill of Rights Institute or support your work? We welcome you to join us in this effort.

Thebill of Rights Institute.org is the place where you can find all kinds of different free online curricula, opportunities for both teachers and parents to dig into the resources, to enroll in both webinars, in-person programs all across the country. We look forward to starting a conversation. David, thanks so much for joining the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you, Rob. Do you own an Amazon Echo? You can now get the Daily Signal podcast every day as part of your daily Alexa Flash briefing. It's easy to do.

Just open your Amazon Alexa app, go to settings, and select Flash Briefing. From there, you can search for the Daily Signal podcast and add it to your Flash briefing so you can stay up to date with the top news of the day that the liberal media isn't covering. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show and in the Morning Bell email newsletter. Virginia, who writes in this week? In response to last week's episode on Booker T. Washington, Robert Thompson writes, A lot of good information.

I grew up in Birmingham during this period. White folks all knew about Dr. Gaston being a millionaire, but I never realized how extensive the business and professional community was among our black citizens. I've known Richard Finley since the late 1960s, early 1970s. It's good to see he is still bringing enlightenment and inspiration to us all. People who didn't grow up in Birmingham during this period can't fully appreciate the accomplishments of the black community. I say that as a person who, before I learned to read,

my grandmother made sure that I drank from the water fountain with the white sign. Well, Virginia, it was a real honor to talk to Richard Finley, and I'm so glad that we did that series during Black History Month. Hopefully we'll get to do it again in the future. I agree. It's so neat just to hear people's personal stories and what they live through and witnessed and are still doing today. And of course, you can find them all at DailySignal.com. In response to Amy Swearer's article, 12 times gun owners defended themselves and others, Crutch writes,

it isn't possible to know just how many times a lawful gun prevented a crime or kept a crime from being worse than it was. Sometimes just showing a gun can stop a crime from occurring. So many are not even reported due to nothing criminal happening. But incidents such as those cited in this article don't fit the narrative of Wild West shooting sprees and the media cry about being exposed as an enemy of the people. Your letter can be featured on next week's show. So send an email to Letters at DailySignal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. Virginia, it's always good to return to stories we've covered in the past.

and you have a good news one for us today. Tell us about it. Yeah, thanks so much, Rob. So every March, our nation celebrates National Medal of Honor Day and the brave individuals who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms. This year, Medal of Honor Day is March 25th, and our good friend, Janine Stang, is once again asking Americans to write letters of gratitude honoring these brave men.

Janine Stang, also known as National Anthem Girl, became nationally known in 2014 when she's successfully saying, anthem in all 50 states. The documentary National Anthem Girl features her story of patriotism and determination. The Daily Signal talked with Janine last year about the Medal of Honor mail call, a project she undertakes annually. So every March, Janine gathers letters from people just like you and me who want to offer their gratitude to Medal of Honor recipients. You're not too young and you're not too old to make a difference. This is just a simple way to say thank you. And I can tell you from witnessing the looks on all their faces that it means the world to them.

This is an opportunity to remind these men that we are truly thankful for their service and their sacrifice and that they're not forgotten. If you wrote a letter last year, thank you so much for doing so. We're asking all of our listeners to take just five or ten minutes this week to write one or two letters to one of the 71 Living Medal of Honor recipients. All the instructions can be found at Janine Stang.com. slash M-O-H. So if you want to write a letter, visit J-A-N-I-N-E-S-T-A-N-G-E dot com slash M-O-H. And we'll be sure to put all the information in the show notes as well. So all the letters do have to be mailed

by March 18th. And we just thank you all in advance for expressing your gratitude through letter to these brave men. That's so true, Virginia. And I would encourage any listeners who, would like to share the letter with us as well, maybe we can feature it in our letters segment on the Daily Signal podcast. That would be great. Again, that email is letters at daily signal.com. And we're going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast comes to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurkishay Audio Network. All our shows can be found at dailysignal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on

Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review at a five-star rating. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to even more listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at Daily Signal and Facebook.com slash the Daily Signal News. Have a great week. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Rob Bluey and Virginia Allen.

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