the past in terms of civic engagement. people are people everywhere. they all have the burdens and their pressures. why some people in the past show up? why did six women in 1840 short and foremost in upstate new york to start the women's suffrage movement? what was it about? six women? do you know what they're up against? all these international businesses and so on it didn't like women because they thought to end child labor and consumer advocates, the price of food for thought and so when. why did people show up to vote for the liberty party against slavery in 1840? that was the first party of any size to be against slavery. why did all those workers have the sit in strikes in flint, michigan, and warren, michigan, in the 1930s, putting off a lot of it on the line?

there was no social security, no unemployment compensation, zero, to sort of families to form the united auto workers. why did they do that a? why did people marched as farmers, some 200,000 farmers in six months in a few counties in texas in late 1880s to start a populist progressive movement, the most fundamental political reform movement in our country. well, one reason was received injustice themselves. the farmers were being fleeced by high interest rates, by the banks, loans for crops and by high railroad freight rates to get their crops to market. the women felt deeply disrespected and they felt the men were not addressing a lot of the issues that women were concerned about. the workers could not live on

what they made working 50, 60 hours a week in an auto plant. it's not easy. and the hazards and the occupational deaths and the diseases. so we take the first motivation was perceived self-interest. they were not abstract to injustices that accumulated all these specific injustices. they had not reached that level yet. some of the socialist innovators in those days would try to get into a higher level, political and economic transformation. the second motivation that got people to do things was, they had leaders who formed political movements. and so more and more people supported social security because they followed norman thomas ran for president on the social party in the 20th

century, and pushed franklin delano roosevelt into adopting and more social net innovations, like social security. they also pushed the arty socialist parties for health insurance, unemployment compensation, 40 hour week, progressive taxation and the like. so you can see political movements often matched civic movements but almost always civic movements precede formal political movements. underneath our citizen groups. that's a pretty good generalization. the third that got people going is more current. how come there are people pushing for a restored minimum wage or higher will minimum wage? and nothing happened. 2008, 2009, .10, 2011.

we push obama and say you wanted $9.50 minimum wage and 27 during your campaign in 2008. the labor unions are supposed to be for it. nothing happened and then it started happening in 2012. why? it's called money. justice requires money and be argue put it up, put up millions of dollars and sadly there were buses full of protesting workers. ever marches in front of wal-mart, mcdonald's, burger king and so on around the country. the will was there but the facilities were not being paid for. and so money was behind a good deal of the success of the women's suffrage movement. rich women who, from philadelphia and elsewhere, put the money in. rich bostonians put the money and the abolition of slavery. the more recent civil rights

movement and department of movement, they were accelerated with contributions from wealthy people who were enlightened. another approach is to give people a sense of small victories so they get the morale up her bigger victories. so is important to develop a sort of sequenced movement whereby there are victories along the way but a major goal is not yet been achieved. another way is skilled. people have hobbies. i'm really amazed i how much time and brainpower people spend on hobbies. they spend three to 500 hours a year, and they know their hobbies begin and end, poker players, bowling, classic car collectors, stamp collectors, you name it, they really know

their stuff. and it's been at least $500 a year on their hobby. and they enjoy it the more they're skilled at it, the more knowledgeable or. and to move into the civic arena. obviously, you don't have any civic skills, if you never taught it in undergraduate, college or high school or middle school, you are going to be less likely to become an active citizen. it just tends to reason, if you do something you're more likely to do it and if you didn't know how to do something. and so what our school spending all their time on? computer literacy? what if you start with civic literacy? that would be a good idea to is there any reason why 100% of a high school graduate should not use the state and federal for information act? information is the currency of democracy. we teach in high school in connecticut. it takes a couple hours. they file other than a government agency, i want to

meet the poultry inspection reports are want a nursing home report, i want this, i want that. that's a great breakthrough actually that we've had a good part of in the 1970s, federal freedom of information act. it's so easy to teach civic skills because when you connect students in the classroom with things going on in the community, they get tremendously motivated. it's a real. it's not sitting in a classroom with the computer in front of you or if you don't have a computer in front of you, the process is remember session, vegetation, education. multiple-choice test. memorization, multiple-choice test. we are basically training young people to be ineffective and uninterested citizens are we are training them to be called incorporate another bureaucratic wheels, and as result they don't live very happy lives. they don't live lives where they

can meet the necessities of life to begin with. look at health care. look at the lack of any adequate public transit, so many places in the country or inadequate housing and so forth. so we have to say why do we start afternoon civic skills classes for students and parents who volunteer? you don't have to change the curriculum. that's very difficult. they would be good if he did but if you didn't, you can still start these afternoon classes. a lot of schools have into classrooms, and at least it will start the ball rolling and you will see a much more motivated the students are in their regular classes, how much more challenging and questioning they are. there's another aspect year that relates more to young people, but during the anti-vietnam

demonstrations on college campuses, we learned something very interesting. that is, if you are part of the risk as a citizen, you're more likely to be part of the solution. one of the reasons why big business executives never proposed solutions for the people whether they were employed, customs our community can is these executives are not part of the risk. have impunity. they have distance. they have immunity and if all the pleasures of life. they are not where the environmental racism is in the slums and poor areas in our country, huge talk six that they produced. it's good for students to understand the history. one of the reasons students really step forward in the '60s is because they were part of a risk. they could've been drafted. they were part of the risk.

they were badly treated in places like in the south. especially if they were minorities. they were part of the risk, and if you're part of the risk you are more likely to get out and protest and be part of the solution. that's a very important motivation as well. also, you asked the question okay, yes citizen, they don't have any power. cicerone define freedom as participation in power. so we have to stop justifying freedom as freedom from oppression, from police action, from the oligarchy to bureaucracy. we should define it as well as participation. when we do that we went to admit that most of don't have any power. because we don't have the power, we have personal freedom. most people can choose their friends, choose their food,

choose the music, choose to they're going to walk in hike with, choose their mates. they can choose a lot of things and have a lot of personal freedom, but civic freedom is another thing. do you have much freedom to participate in the power to shape our tax system? are peace and war choices? our local environment, the use of public budgets and so forth? the answer is obvious, in most cases the answer is that kind of freedom is not available. what are our assets? would have all that much power. what are our assets? that we can deploy. number one, we outvote the corporations. immensely. we are millions of votes. corporations don't have a single vote, not yet. okay? number two, we have far more

energy than our adversaries than the plutocracy's. they just have posted. they have gotten soft and they are not that great a number. number three, we have our consumer dollars. what are we doing putting our money and jpmorgan chase and buying metropolitan life insurance policies? with some of the most progressive groups in this country. "nation" magazine, democracy now!, cit city of light, and whi get checksummed them for expenses to go on the show or a little advance, i look at the check. it's jpmorgan chase. it's wells fargo. what do we doing spending money when they can spend money in community banks and credit unions and patronize farmer to consumer markets and local sustainable energy and community health clinics, started if they are not there, take our dollars away from global business, you

we condemn. they've got $2 trillion stacked up in my the fortune 500. that's our money originally. where did it come from? it's our consumer dollars. where did it come from? the next asset we have is that we own the greatest wealth in the country. of course. we found together with all other americans the public lands onshore and offshore, but the sight of the u.s. by the way. all the natural resources. we own the public airwaves over which the radio and tv stations transmit their programs. we are the landlords of the radio and tv stations are the tenets and they pay us know what they decide who says what 24 hours a day. something that rights, right? do you ever look at network tv on saturday afternoon? hold onto your stomach. it's like nothing else happens in america except guys going to flop on their bikes,

infomercials selling due kitchen appliances. great be movies, and a few sports are there. is anything else going on our property? it's our property. imagine if we had her own audience network, and with other assets. our tax dollars come were grumbling about taxes. why do we grumble about what we don't get for them? reciprocity. what do we get for our taxes? we've got to be more demanding in terms of what we getting in return for trillions of dollars of government r&d that we pay for the built the great industries in this country is executives take credit for themselves like the semiconductor industry, a good deal of the form so industry, the aerospace industry, the biotech industry, connecticut industry. the containerization industry. this stuff came out of the pentagon, nasa call the national institutes of public health. once you start amassing to

assets can we get a higher morale boost. we helped start the research group. here's where another morale factor gets in. if it's easy to band together come you're more likely to band together. if you can't find each other, it's hard to band together and become an effective force. so we persuaded students in the early '70s to vote to put a check off under the utility bill and assess themselves five, six talk to you tha did it doesn't a nonprofit group called student public industry group, and a higher young people who are lawyers, scientists, organizers, publicists, lobbyists. and they've done an enormous job with a tiny, tiny bit of the resources connected to this

facility under tuition bill. you can go to you sbic rg, had -- ahead will be speaking on day three at constitution hall september 28 of this month. so let me end on this note. we need to think very strategically, not just in terms of what's wrong. we need to think of how to have a higher estimate of our own significant as it. that's part of cicerone, respect. we need to think creatively. how to develop mechanisms where people band together as utility ratepayers, right? as tenets, as workers, right? as consumers in various areas. we need to recognize that the most successful lobbyists on congress did not mess around with marches and rallies. have you ever seen the nra with a massive rally in washington

backs have using a pack with a massive rally in washington? it's because they focus on 535 people, their staff, doctors, lawyers, accountants. that's what they do, zero, focus, completely focused on their members of congress. laser beams is wanted me to say. focus. that's how they can leverage. they know there are 535. that's just smart strategy to developing checkouts to get people together, keeping underclass or their economic interest or role. that's just smart politics. the final thing is to start utilizing the rights we already have. we underutilized all right when are wrongfully injured under tort law, the law of wrongful injury. 98% of the people are wrongfully

injured don't even go to a lawyer to file suit or claim against their perpetrator. we totally underutilized our rights of contract. we signed on the dotted line or click on. we don't even see the contract and then they charged us $35 for a balance check the cost the bank about and have. did you ever say to yourself, that i agree to that? did i agree with the airline said they could change any deal on frequent fliers without our consent? did i agree to that? that i agree when they said you went through the doors and you signed a general consent form, you agreed not to go to court to pursue a case of malpractice? what i agree to that ?-que?-que x to to create self-perpetuating freedoms from the england to vegas, the law of torts and block contracts. that's what the entire day for constitutional is all about on september 29. so do spread the word.

every member, out of the smallest exertions can come great movements. little berry college a few years ago, bill mckibben had his students class can talking about climate change, climate change. finally, the students got up and said whatever going to do about it? all we do is talk about it. so bill mckibben said what you wanted to? we want to march on climate change issues in burlington, vermont. so a thousand students marched, reporters don't and this is the biggest march that ever occurred in the united states on climate change. they said what? here in vermont, we are the biggest march? something must be wrong. so they started 350.org and it's got chapters all over the world that's put huge rallies into place, and has 100 or 50 full-time people already. one little class, middle berry virginia. it's not only nature that has seeds they go into mighty oak

trees. if you and you and you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, ralph nader. i'd like to know that we're right on schedule until our last speaker. [laughter] but that's okay. it was worth it. all right. our next talk will be a panel discussion, and i'm going to introduce the moderator of the panel and then i will let her introduced the panelists. and the moderator is katherine isaac. she is with the campaign for postal banking and a grand alliance to save our public postal service at the american postal workers union. she serves on the board of the international labor rights forum and she formerly worked here in

ththis building of the center fr study of responsive law. while they are should vote civics for democracy, a journey for teachers and students, and she also led the summer institute on teaching activism. katherine, take it away. [inaudible] i am delighted to be here today. good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the panel on teaching civics, a view from the classroom. so i'm going to introduce our panel is and i'm going to talk a little bit about our civics for democracy project and been turned over to them, if they will do some questions so that the panel can talk with each other after the presentations. so to my nearest left is ayo magwood. she's the upper school teacher, an independent school in washington, d.c. she currently teaches u.s. history and an elective entitled

mapping and equity in d.c. she teaches u.s. history with a mind to preparing future citizens to give engage in respectful in the form dialogue on current issues. she consistently show students how the same ideological value tensions that lie under historical debates and developments also underlie current and future issues. she strives to show them how to understand and respect opposing viewpoints come and to counter them with informed evidence rather than what partisan soundbites. she also teaches history through strong social justice lens. for example, this year she's a penny the usual u.s. history chronology and starting the year with a four-week, six-week, good, six-week, 1960s to the present unit entitled understanding the rights of trumpism and black lives matter. the underlying objective is to help the students come to an understanding about the rise of income and racial inequality. next we have julian dotson, the president and ceo of the d.c.

urban league, urban debate league. he coaches are will debate teams in the public and private schools in the d.c. area. he taught english and debate for 14 years until they finally devoted his time to expanding the debate league in the metropolitan region. he'pc screen writer, graphic designer, lyricist and poet an avid fisherman who loves to tackle -- ha ha -- tough ideas and approach education with a worldview. this jack of all trades credits his father for forcing them to do what it takes to be self-sufficient. his mother for teaching how to honor his wife come and his wife of 12 years for seeing the good in humans be. he has three children who all attend the my angel of school in temple so marilyn. and last but not least robin lingo. robin brims almost 15 years of youth empowerment nonprofit management curriculum development and your facilitation experience to her role as executive director.

she's a native of the washington, d.c. area, just passionate about providing authentic spaces for d.c. youth to investigate, affect and change the world around them. she will explore to go to more opportunities to bring you the voice into local decision-making and i let in people's ability to be engaged citizens and community leaders. but before turned over to them, i want to talk a little bit about a project that ralph sponsor in the early '90s which culminated in the book called civics for democracy your so it shouldn't be a big surprise to any of you that ralph saw great need for engaging young people in our system of government. let civic education in our schools was and still largely is focused on voting, jury duty and the three branches of government. students need to be equipped with the knowledge of citizen movements in our history with practical tools of participation

as well as opportunities to practice those tools and build civic skills our goal was to train students to be fully engaged as citizens active is, not merely as voters or volunteers. as ralph wrote, our schools to teach chemistry without a laboratory, cooking without a kitchen, or computer programming without computers. likewise, civics cannot be properly taught with it using the community as a natural laboratory so that students can learn by doing. so we began working with educators, historians and activists to produce the textbook. we wanted first to add curricula, the missing curricula of people's history, of the civil rights, labor, women's right, consumer and environmental movement. led by ordinary americans and an essential part of u.s. history to as historian lawrence goodwin put it, one cannot construct

what one cannot imagine. we also saw the need to teach practical tools. these include pamphleteering, whistleblowing, forming a citizen group, conducting public education, research, direct action and citizen lobbying. and we should students how to use the courts initiative and referenda, shareholder activism and the media. we also included activities that allow students to practices and tools and skills in a laboratory the community. gaining confidence and experience to continue the practice of civics throughout their life. in the 20 plus years since civics for democracy, various organizations and educators have made significant progress, especially in teaching and more inclusive history. but there is much more to be done. so let's not hear from our panelists who are doing this work of civic education day in and day out. ayo?

[inaudible] >> my name is trying what i wanted to you about myself, how much idea. -- my name is ayo. my african-american mother and my wife me of met each other 19, three years before loving v. virginia, supreme court decision that banned, it struck down interracial marriage ban. so -- they used to take me in what you call it, stroller, on strikes and marches with a sign attached. so i grew up in a very, i grew up in a very strongly social justice background. it fit my blood. i can't get away from it. another very formative expert speakers suffer more panels the second but we have to leave the conference down. you can continue watching at c-span.org on the live stream or listen live on the free c-span

read at. the senate about to begin its day with gavel to gavel coverage here on c-span2. senators debating government spending which runs out on friday. they will be voting tomorrow whether or not to move ahead with the current proposal that was filed friday by the majority leader, and expecting a vote sometime this week to override the president's veto of a 9/11 victims lawsuit bill.