The news is not as good as it was last year but there is always good news. This is a chance to make sure that everyone is a little more aware of the responsibilities we have in your constitution. Host explain what the survey is and how long you have been doing it. Guest it is been going on for 20 years. It can you name three branches of government . Can you name the freedoms protected in the First Amendment. Questions about the prerogatives of the various branches. When there is a constitutional matter who gets to decide what is or not the law . These are the presupposition all, if you dont understand these things happening in the news what makes sense. Their capacities as a citizens will not be top of mind at times where you want them there. You might want to know when there is a conflict between the president and the Supreme Court or congress and the president who has what kinds of powers. Host to put some numbers to this years survey in front of our viewers, here is one of the questions asking those who responded to the survey if they could name all three branches of government only 47 said that they could. 18 could name just to end 11 could name just one and 25 could not name any. Last year, the number of respondents who could name all three was a 56 , down to 47 why did that fall in 12 months . Guest we learn these things in grade school or high school and they should just be there. They should be there ready to be recalled by us to answer the question of what are the branches of government. It turns out, some things are more top of mind than others. This is open recall, can you name, your ability to do that from top of mind is lower when the past year has not spent a lot of time talking about the branches of government and their relationship to each other. At some point, maybe this is good news because there was less conflict between the branches and so the top of mind recall between the bridges was not as high. People can make sense of what is in the news. To know what the levers of power are in order to enact change. Host it seems like the First Amendment is always in the news. Here are some of the numbers on questions to respondents to the survey about being able to name the freedoms in the First Amendment. 63 could name the freedom of speech. 24 could name the freedom of religion. 16 could name the right of people to peaceably assemble and 6 the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Those numbers are down significantly as well. Guest think of the past couple of years and what was in the news. We had major protests following george floyd. We had controversy about who can assemble how and where. The key word peaceably assemble. We also had debates about what constitutes the boundaries of speech. Those debates were more front and center and that is our best explanation for why we saw drop. The years prior to the past two years, those answers had been lower. We may have simply moved back to a baseline knowledge when things are not front and center in the news unless you are paying attention to these facts. Host one of our viewers joining this conversation. The phone lines to do so the democrats 202 7488000, republicans 202 7488001, independents 202 7488002 and maybe we will even get some teachers to join the discussion to talk about civics education. Inviting you to call in as we talk to Kathleen Hall jamieson from the annenberg centers Constitution Day civics survey. Remind us about your centers mission. Guest it is part of the university of pennsylvania and its mission is trying to increase Public Knowledge and in particular student knowledge about basic rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The foundational concepts of the constitution. We helped to organize the civics renewal network. Cspan classroom as part of this. Provide the best materials that they have assembled for use at school and in homes. It is an obligation of parents and teachers and schools and on Constitution Day, it is an obligation in schools because the third amendment requires that schools teach the constitution. Take a look at the civics renewal network. It costs nothing and we have a really nice index that will help you find it and we urge you to mixandmatch to try to find things that work best for you. Host you mentioned cspan in the classroom here at cspan for viewers who want to learn more about the annenberg centers. You can find that on our website at cspan. Org classroom. That is where you can go. Guest you dont have to wait for constitution to celebrate the constitution. It is available every day including the days we are celebrating Constitution Day. Host plenty of calls for you already this morning. This is paula here in washington dc, democrat. Caller good morning everyone. I am a federal worker. I work in Human Resources in the executive branch. I do question related to what you were just discussing which is educating individuals, young people in school. I am a middleaged person and dont remember getting a lot about civics in high school in the 80s. I was just wondering what the curriculum would look like today and if it really is something that is being taught robustly in schools today . That is my question. Guest for teachers and schools, the amount that has to be taught during the day is large. There are students that need extra help in some areas. Asking the teachers to add one more thing is to ask a great deal. We would hope that there would be a way for teachers to see if they could enter great how Government Works and of course that is not called civics to talk through with students about what is happening in the news and what that means in the constitution. What the constitution rounding for it is. There is less civics being taught now than there was. We know less about the specific kinds of content being taught in schools but we know that we have a lot of good material that is foundational that will help you teach about structures of government and constructive ways of engaging at your local and state level. If you want to create change using structures that have proven resilient over the years. Let me add one more thing about the importance of a civics course. When we look at our statistics, we ask have you had a civics course in high school or college. When someone says yes, it increases the likelihood they are more likely to get those questions right. It increases the likelihood that when you asked the question, if the Supreme Court issued an unpopular ruling, maybe it would be better to go to the Supreme Court it would be about idea. To increase appreciation for our structures of government that will increase the likelihood that people will want to defend them if they are challenged. Host from mlb on twitter who has been watching the long. The lack of knowledge within our american citizens is a damming statement on our education policy. We are in danger of having an uneducated electorate and that will be the beginning of the end of this country as we know it. Are you pessimistic . Guest i want to be optimistic about anything. Because it makes it harder to get through the rest of the day. The question is, if you dont know who is responsible for doing what and government, if you dont know which Party Controls congress or one house of congress, if you dont know which party is in the white house it will be more difficult for you to say i dont like this and i want to vote to change this because you dont know who was in charge. If you are not paying enough attention to elections to understand that the party who moves into power does have some prerogatives that will increase the likelihood that they will get what they want from the system when you have a president of the same party and you have a house and senate of that same party. We want people to understand the foundation so they are not swayed by a lot of ads by individuals and may vote the opposite way that they would vote if they were fully informed. My concern about an uninformed electorate is that our votes translate to a governance that we thought we would get based on our understanding of where they stood on issues and where they sit within the power arrangement which determines if they can get something done. Host you said having civic issues helps increase Civic Knowledge generally as people are talking about it, hearing about it. The Supreme Court has been in the news, especially in the wake of the Dobbs Decision. When they ask who has final responsibility determining whether an act is constitutional if the president and Supreme Court disagreed, less than half correctly said the Supreme Court. Why is that . Guest if you dont understand that there are branches you are likely to get that question wrong. This notion that there is foundational knowledge most of us take for granted but some dont have means that we have not anchored their understanding of our government and its structures in a way that lets them understand who has what kind of prerogatives under our system. The Supreme Court makes that decision. It can change his position across time. It can say that an earlier decision was wrong but it doesnt do that very often. We have the means to amend the constitution. If you dont understand the three branches you can understand that knowledge. It is important for people who think the Dobbs Decision was not decided fairly, they need to be able to address that when it comes about at the state level. We would like to see everyone be able to act on their point of view in a way that is responsible. Peaceably assemble, exercise their right to speech. Ensures that the action they take is the action they anticipate based on an understanding of the institution. Caller i ran into this issue of ignorance on a project that i worked on a decade ago. I took a survey asking people and ask them how many amendments there were in the constitution and i had to go through 31 people and no one else knew the answer. Host its 27 right . Caller yes. I started doing seminars and after the 2016 election i thought we are really cooked. I set up a website and everything and during the pandemic we stopped. I am starting up again this saturday on Constitution Day we are doing another one. Is it ok if i promote that . It is that civicstriage. Com. And also the question you had about the Supreme Court, the abortion thing. Congress could pass a law and make it so that abortion is legal in all the states right now. They could do it if they wanted to. The only reason they are not passing that law is so they could get people fired up to avoid democrat. If you think that decision was wrong you should vote against the incumbents right now. You should vote for whoever is challenging the incumbent. Because the congress has the power to change that. Host why is it civics triage . Caller after the 2016 election i thought we cant wait for the education to teach kids. The adults need training. Its almost like an emergency. I set it up before the pandemic coincidentally. Its almost like a disease we have in our nation that people are not educated about civics. Host thank you for the call from new hampshire. Guest i wonder how many people know what triage actually means. The number of times we put a word in the question and listened as people struggled with that as they tried to figure out what we meant. That may be a concept that is not in the vocabulary of many people. When we are trying to teach things about our system of government, what are the most important things that people need to know . We can amend the constitution. There are means of doing it. One of the things that is ingenious about our system is that it has a way of people to affect change through channels that increase the likelihood that the majority if they act intelligently and understand the levers of power will ultimately be able to get what they thinks is best for the body politic. Understand that we amend, how we amend is more important than knowing how many amendments are. There are a lot of amendments because across time, we have made some important changes. What are they . What rights did they guarantee . What understandings were built into those rights. I like the idea that my grandmother marched for suffrage. My grandmother enshrined the right for women to vote. I grew up knowing that amendment was there and she fought to make that happen. That was one of my earliest understandings. She thought she made a real difference for marching for suffrage. Host from maryland, on the line for democrats. Caller these conversations are so vitally important and this needs to be funded. I am a former social studies instructor in washington dc. I taught American Government which is a mandatory course in order to graduate high school. How can we have a democracy that is for the people, by the people if many of its citizens dont know the three branches of government, dont know their state and local history . And understand that local history and State Government how it impacts and influences our National Government . I was encouraged by the fact that these high school students, why a lot of them did not like history they loved and thrived in the American Government course. The way they phrased it, it really was civics. The onus is not only on parents and adults but in partnership with state School Boards that these classes are still mandatory before you graduate because it impacts the rest of your life. And lastly, this country should be listening to Duke Ellingtons the queen speech when he met her in 1959. Host thank you for the call. Guest thank you to the color for teaching social studies. She makes the important point that there are many places in the curriculum where we can increase civics education. The other thing i would like to stress, you have to think about everybody having the responsibility to increase the understanding beyond the understanding built in our school system. When journalists write their articles about the controversies of the day, they presuppose that we know the three branches. They presuppose we know the rights and privileges of the constitution. If i could make one request of my journalists, when you write these stories, especially online where you find younger adults. If you would build in those parenthetical statements, you find ways to build in foundational knowledge with current events. We learned these things through and direct experience. We could all do a better job remembering that. Most people who dont know foundational government information it will make sense. Host whether its mandatory to teach civics, are there places where civics courses are not mandatory . Guest there are places that are trying to increase civics courses. We say mandatory but we have to be careful about the language. Mandated by who and in order to do what . There have been National Surveys about how much is happening and where. I would encourage everybody to ask what is being taught in my local schools because that is something we have control over. Take a look at the materials are they engaging materials . One of the things i think is interesting about the ways in which we talk about civics, its really about the federal government. Its important to understand the federal government. The places we are likely to effect changes the local government. Their structures are very similar to those on the state and federal level. When you have a problem in your community you can come together and exercise your collective will in relationship to those structures. They are much more likely to translate what you want to do. Largely the ways we exercise our most important activities are going to be at our local levels, our community levels. I applaud those teachers who find a way to visit the local court. Find the executive branch and see how it is working. We want to fix this problem, where do we go to fix it . How do we use our voice to articulate our desires and needs . Find a part of our local government structure that has the power to act on it. You can waste a lot of time trying to find change of the wrong places. You can get really frustrated about your inability to create change if you dont know how to use the right levers to affect it. Caller good morning cspan thank you for taking my call. The last caller from maryland covered it. I learned about civics in high school. I learned it well, it was taught well. We need to get back to the basic reading, writing, arithmetic and civics. It is appalling how stupefied our people have become from the degradation of what has been taught in school. If we want to have engaging material, think back to the 70s when we had schoolhouse rock. It sounds funny but that cartoon taught me a lot of things. It taught me how a bill becomes a law. If we want to fun things from the federal government to increase the knowledge of the citizens, stuff like that is simple and easy and effective. Host before you go you said you learned it well, do you remember the name of your civics teacher in high school . Caller peter conway, seventh. Cleveland ohio. Guest i hope that peter conway hears that. I hope everyone remembers the teachers that taught us well if they are still with us. Send a little note to say thank you. That would do a lot to boost the morale of people who are having a difficult time teaching in the current environment. Many of our children fell behind during the pandemic. There is an increased burden on everyone trying to make sure everyone catches up. Host from maryland, this is isaiah on the line for democrats. Caller hello . Guest i had trouble understanding your question. Host one more time isaiah. Caller i heard the constitution guest our system gives us ways to try to ensure that it will work. Part of the reason the system has proved so resilient is that it has built within it the capacity to change, to right wrongs and alters structures when they are not working well and hold people accountable when they fail. When they promise and deliver. When we talk about the conversation we talk about rights without focusing on the kinds of responsibility that is carried by citizenship. When we are called into jury duty, without talking about why you should want to serve on a jury. Serving on a jury takes time but that is part of the way we protect each other in our system. It is a really important protection builtin. We have that protection built into the court system so they can understand and protect us from government overreach. We should cherish those rights so we can defend those rights. If a judge cannot force you to testify against yourself. We want people to understand their rights so they can stand up to cherish those rights. We need to look up more carefully on all the ways the constitution is backing us. A big point of the constitution is to make sure that the government was not oppressive. Host Kathleen Hall jamieson it is nice to see that some viewers on twitter are shouting out the names of their civics teachers in high school. Do you remember yours . Guest i had a civic teachers name ms. Sanderson. She was the best teacher i had in the entire eight years of elementary school. She was so clear that little children could make change inside of our community. She took us to watch a trial. She had a judge come and speak to us. She invited a local member of congress to come. We were incredibly impressed with that person who showed up and took our questions. She did everything she could to ensure that those Young Children felt that they were important and that they would grow up to be responsible people who could make the world better. I thought she was the best teacher that any child could ever had. Unfortunately, she is host no longer with us. Host host larry, 20 california. Caller i graduated in 1971. I joined the marines and i was in for 20 years. I got into i. T. In 1978. I ended up with over 20 schools after the marine corps. I dont know why we dont try to get a lot of people together and give all these classes and put them on tv. Sometimes at night, they have terrible shows. We have to educate the American People and tell everybo were going to leave this program to honor our commitment to live coverage of the u. S. House. Today, three new members of congress will be sworn in. Also on the agenda, lawmakers will work