Fantastic group of panelists beginning with Mike Petrilli and chester finn. How to educate an american was brainchild of mike and chester and today they will share with us their original inspiration behind the book and why it seems the more important now to revitalize k12 Civic Education. Joining us today is david bobb come present 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 david worked at Hillsdale College and is the author of a book on the vital role of humility in politics. Welcome, david. Also joining us is jonah goldberg, the chair and applied liberty of the American Enterprise institute and the editorinchief of dispatch, unlike me he has authored the chapter in how to educate an american. Finally Sarah Morgan Smith director faculty at the sender which seeks to restore and strengthen the capacity of the American People for constitutional selfgovernment. Thank you all for joining. To make quick housekeeping is. We will be doing a q a so submit questions in one of two ways. Either you can email or submit questions to the hashtag educating americans aei. Second note is this webinar will be posted on both the aei and affordable websites and am pleased to share that cspan booktvs website will also air the discussion. Its fit to say the world has changed quite dramatically since mike and chester first concede tonight. As mike to ensure they wanted gather a group of scholars to provide a continuum of ideas that would reinvigorate conservative thought and education and ensure that people would value the nations history, understand government and cherish its founding ideals. But then what i described as two mac earthquakes and a trimmer occurred. The first earthquake is of course the covid19 pandemic. And then some who runs a network that is in its third month of Distance Learning for 2000 students and now we are doing massive amounts of scenario planning for what Schools Look Like in the fall, one thing that is certain is that instructional delivery in k12 education is going to look radically different. What has been less discussed is more than anecdotal evidence suggesting that children who enter the pandemic embedded in strong married families are much more likely be protected from financial and emotional stress. How will that fact change urgency of what we teach young people about the importance of building Strong Families and Strong Civil Society in a post covert world . The second earthquake as i describe it is the New York Times 1619 project. If youre not thinly with 601980s the New York Times attempt to place slavery at the center of our National Narrative in the year 1619 as the true fan and an american not be your 1776. The revisions history at 1619 has widely been discredited by historians on both the left and the right and its premises been challenged by scholars and activists led by bob woodson who is one of the 1776 project. But despite this opposition that 1619 project lead author won the pulitzer which will likely only accelerate distribution of a 1619 curriculum which is already in thousands of urban schools ensuring that primarily low income kids of color up with an understanding of American History that says the countries founding ideals were quote, false, when the written and tt quote, antiblack racism runs in the very dna of this country. How do we focus on Civic Education when that is a growing movement in urban schools . Beyond these earthquakes is what i call the trimmer, a periodic disruption that reminds us of the crisis that exist in america. New results nation report card has release revealing the percentage of eighth grade students who demonstrated proficiency in content knowledge and skills was just 24 in civic, 25 in geography, and 15 in u. S. History. At an history only 10 of eighth graders can explain why the south lost the civil war. Unfortunately these numbers are nothing new and these rumblings have been repeated for years. So with that friendly of the challenges comes how to educate america. The lead editor will kick us off. Mike, given how the landscape has changed, how has the relevance of how to educate an american changed or even then enhanced . Thank you so much, ian. I appreciate that. First of all for hosting and monitoring today but a special brother great work that you and your colleagues are doing for the boys and girls on young men and young women in your schools in new york city. Thank you to the American Enterprise institute for hosting this. It was supposed to be a light event once upon a time. Covid made that impossible but we appreciate forging ahead with this webinar. We understand there are many hundreds of you out there watching and we appreciate your time as well. Winchester and i launched the project more than two years ago, we did so from a place of frustration. Thats because a National EducationReform Movement that roared across america after our nation at risk felt like it had run out of steam. While Reform Efforts still go on, they appear almost as often. Its a diversion of the stagnation that ross writes about in his new book in decadent society. We felt stuck. There have been some nontrivial successes, standards and expectations are higher almost february and the used to be. She been has risen a bit at least in the earlier come mostly in math and especially for the lowest performers. Some learning gaps have narrowed and the opportunities are wider. Millions more offensive options for the childrens education as it is no longer taken for granted that students will attend the district operating a Public Schools closest to those. Those all things to celebrate. Many of these reforms driving ideas work conservative in origin although making them happen typically entail bipartisanship and compromise. As democrats and republicans, mostly centerleft and centerright found Common Ground in pursuit of big changes, in the deeply entrenched Education System that was not successfully serving many of the children or society which they lived. As we all know bipartisanship is in tatters today in many realms of our National Life and thats a big problem on countless fronts. Yet as eve on level the gains made possible through bipartisanship also been suppressing important differences and neglecting some vital elements in schooling in particular an education in general. It seemed like time to linking to these differences to highlight whats been neglected, lost or distorted, and address troubling education for instance, if we can renegotiate terms before the next wave of bipartisan reform. So that was the purpose of how to educate an american. And it almost two dozen rightleaning public intellectuals and scholars responded to our request to up us quote address the questions about where america finds itself at this moment in history, where we are going, where we should go and the roles of primary, secondary education in taking us there. As should be expected from this Incredible Group of creative thinkers, they also often many directions and yet their separate musings turned out revolve around a few key themes here one revolved around good character that include moral education, properly construed it also the critical work of helping young people find purpose in feel needed, the benefits of asking students to work hard and are studies in beyond and be contrary the reforms that reinforce the soft bigotry of low expectations around student behavior. The second big theme urged a view of what comes after elementary and secondary education. Many of the authors argued college may not be the only pathway to dignity or the middle class and the key goal of our school should be to inform teenagers about the success secrets and encourage them to w it. As we know the sequence is different in school, to get a fulltime job, to get married and to start a family in that order. As ian im sure will say a little bit later, ian in this chapter writes a lot about the success sequence and the broader issues of family structure. Finally, the third theme is what we will be discussed and it is important to rekindling students understanding of American History, civics and citizenship including the kind that informs love of country. That was the focus of joan is fantastic chapter about irradiating the past, which will hear more in a moment. It was also the subject of eliot cohen is wonderful as a unpatriotic history, the history that is both allamerican and also critical of the many ways our beloved nation has fallen short of its ideals. It was the themes will by chapter by adam of the philanthropy roundtable about how donors can promote an excellent engaging version of Civic Education without relying solely on public institutions. And it was a big part of the concluding chapter by former education secretary William Bennett expressing his concern that more than three decades after don hursh warned us about cultural illiteracy, we still failed to teach her youngest goods history and geography, science and the arts, all important in the own right but also sent it where ever to win the war against illiteracy. What all these nc7, in my view is a broad agreement around the problem even if you remain flummoxed about how to respond. The problem still the put is that the academic left has embraced revisionist history as a means to attack americas history, and especially its founding as inherently unjust and even racist. This version of history jump the shark from colleges and universities to high schools, especially the textbook like people sisters of the United States, recently the 16th 19 project. This in turn has politicized our k12 history classes there stretches of history was taught perfectly in the past way back when our schools were surely to be good to go after the coaches failed and too often did so with the boring lectures to boot. But the challenge cannot be ignored. Those who lead and teach in our schools have to choose how to respond. I suspect much of our discussion today will focus on the question of the right response. Some conservatives may dream of eradicating the light from our schools, returning to an unabashedly patriotic version of history focus on great man and worse one, and perhaps my actual happen to some extent in deep red america, or in conservative private and charter schools. A version of the benedict option. Is that the best solution to accept the sum American Kids will be taught red American History while others will learn blue American History . Is a a way to teach a red and e even purple history and understand and appreciation of our past . That in elliotts for malicious both patriotic and critical without aborting a a competent controversies which would make history even more boring and im engaging for our teenagers . Thats the challenge the nations educator space and a hope today we might give them some hope that it can be met. Thank you. Michael, thank you for that great introduction and framing. Now were going here from david bobb, president of the bill of Rights Institute. Thank you for joining us, and please share your thoughts. Thank you very much, ian, and thank you mike for the excellent framing and for you and checker putting this outstanding volume of essays and reflections together. In 2015 the south korean government set in motion a plan by which a new book was unveiled, the correct textbook of history was its title. Now mind you that was south korea, not north korea. It was design to remedy the perceived flaws of other textbooks. This resource has the interlocutor of the government. It was a regime sanctioned textbook. You might be thinking, isnt it great we dont do that in the United States . And its true we do not have official textbooks issued by the United States federal government. What we do have it assist in which the Decisionmaking Authority at the state level is lodged largely with the bureaucrats who are choosing textbooks created by a handful of the largest publishers. And what weve done in essence is create a kind of cartel. This cartel has produced textbooks that manage it that wants to be ideologically barred and boring. They dont reflect the viewpoints of diversity that many teachers desire. Heres the good news. Teachers are more entrepreneurial than the system in many cases. Take for example, what the Digital Company news ella discovered. Administrators say that teachers are using textbooks about half the time, about half the days in which who is in session. This was precovid, conducted precode. What teachers say is that the using their official sanctioned textbooks about one out of five days. Now, i think thats a good thing, and the several contributors point out in how to educate an american we need to do more to help districts, charter, private and homeschooling teachers, parents, have ready access to viewpoint diverse resources. These resources need to challenge students on how it is that they can become thoughtful, patriotic citizen. Robbie george in particular makes a powerful case that Viewpoint Diversity should be a public and private good at it must also be a foundation of 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, but will be amended to a vision for tomorrows schools for all americans. In other words, sound Civic Education is neither conservative nor progressive, neither left nor right. It does not push a political agenda by that does the noble our policy. Civics teachers and students young and old, the vibrancy of civil society. Civics is also in this capable. Whether or not inescapable. Whether theres a course called civics or secondary school students, they are constantly forming for good or ill, viewpoint on american ideas and institutions. For most Young Americans that worldview is [inaudible] sound civics as eliot cohen forcefully argues in the essay of this book should be patriotic. He admits at the end of this essay but does not explore as much as i wouldve liked that patriotic history needs guardrails to ensure that it doesnt feed ideological narratives like the lost cause idea relating to the civil war. Call with advances what might be called on civic and History Education. Let me just summarize it using his words. I quote without civics our Political Institutions are reduced to valueless mechanisms. Without history, there is no Civic Education. Without Civic Education there are no citizens without citizens there is no free republic. I endorse this line of argument and greatly appreciate the reminder that civics and history as well as philosophy in every other humane inquiry must be grounded in humility. Our task is not managed to have another time of limitation about needs scores rather to take up the task of supporting teachers, parents administrators need to recognize that it is a hard task to be viewpoint diverse and i believe having seen this for the last six years at the bill of Rights Institute that many of our teachers and social studies community are very much in favor of and indeed do every day of viewpoint diverse presentation of civics and history. There are resources that we agreed at the bill of Rights Institute that seek to be part of the solution. I just want to mention a couple of them before turning my time over. The website has hundreds, affect thousands of different resources that teachers can choose from to support their work. These are on topics that relate to things that often are really hard subjects, for example, how do we balance liberty in security . Hadley talk about in the plural wife 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 amendment . As the next slide shows us a lot of things that can be done to directly engage students. They just got done, for example, millions of students taking advanced basement exams. With seminars and webinars that engage the student with those ideas and a rich conversation, and on july six the bill of Rights Institute release a publication called life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and history of the american experiment. It employs 100 leading academic historians who agree on virtually nothing to debate Point Counterpoint all of the key questions of history. In so doing, students were invited to a conversation, our rich cons active conversation that spent decades and centuries of debate and dialogue and we think the outcome of that kind of thing is the sound civics that this book rightfully points us in the direction of. Thanks so much. David, thank you so much. I think the points, Viewpoint Diversity and the fact that history is neither conservative nor liberal, those tremendously resonate, and checker, david recommend a different subtitle for the book. Not that theres necessarily co