c-span products. >> next on american history tv, the u.s. capitol historical society hosts a constitution day program celebrating their we the people education initiative, followed by a panel discussion on how schools and institutions can foster civic knowledge and engagement. good evening. great to see everybody. happy constitution day, welcome to the united states capital. i'm the ceo here at the capitol visitor's center. we are pleased to be hosting this event with our friends and partners at the united states capital historical society. i can't think of a better way for us to mark institution day than when they program devoted to fostering informed citizenship. founders knew our democratic system of government would depend on an informed citizenry.

our second president john adams said liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people. president,or as thomas jefferson, said life and liberty go together. -- light and liberty go together. one reason the center was established is to inspire citizens of all ages. we do that every day through tours and public programs and educational programs. one of our contributions to achieving the civic education goals is our partnership with the we the people program. we are delighted to share lessons on the role of congress and our constitutional system with students from the washington dc area. our education team supports this partnership, but i want to give special thanks to the education program manager, larin --

lauren. --ren [applause] established the program that gives students an idea of what it is like to be a member of congress. we try to stay current with our programming and are always updating a developing and doing our part to strengthen the we the people program. thank you to lauren and the education team. we appreciate you. it is exciting to think we the people will be accessible to students across the country through the nbc platform. for alla fantastic way of us to share the we the people experience. thank you again for being here

and for this program. i know everyone is looking forward to the distinguished panel. i would like to introduce the president and ceo of the capital historical society, jane campbell. [applause] --fessor randolph: jane: thank you so much, beth. we are talking about we the people. that phrase is so familiar to us today, so familiar that we might not stop to think about what a radical concept those three words were at the time when governor morris of pennsylvania penned the preamble to the constitution. distills the underlying values that moved the framers in their long debates in philadelphia. 1780 nine, government leaders

were kings or dictators. the idea that the power rested in the hands of the people being governed was revolutionary. the words we the people stood in striking variance to the norm, because even in earlier founding documents of this country, the treaty of alliance with france, articles of confederation, the treaty of paris recognizing american independence, the word people was never used. the phrase the united states was always followed by a delineation of the states, and it was the rights of the states, not the rights of the people. when the framers of our constitution said we were going to create the document to form a more perfect union to establish justice, to ensure domestic tranquility, to provide for the common defense, to promote the general welfare and to secure

the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity, very lofty goals. in many ways, the constitution took as a document that the declaration of independence, which was a statement of intent, to a statement of how we were going to get this done. a truly democratic society relies, as best described, on to ability of its citizens be informed and to be ready to act. what good is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, if the people themselves have no idea what their role as citizens entails, or what civic rights they are even entitled to? this is the mission that brings us here tonight.

a former history teacher and congressman from iowa founded the society in 1962. he knew that by sharing the history of the capital and the progress, he could help everyone, as he said, catch something of the fire that burned in the hearts of those who walked and talked in these halls. shrihrink of family -- the ngle family continues to be involved in the society and we are happy to have fred's daughter here with us today. [applause] publicek, the annenberg policy universe -- public policy center at the university of pennsylvania released their report on public knowledge in the u.s.. the good news, americans know about -- no more about the constitution and separations of power more now than they did

last year. two and five adults can name all three branches of government. that means that three and five -- that means that three in five cannot. in fact, a quarter of the adults can name only one. in five cannot name any branch of government. today the u.s. historical society works to address that to instillledge, and our congressionally-chartered mission that states we are responsible to foster and citizenryn informed about the founders of this nation and the continuing thread of principles as exemplified by their success source. through educational programming, ongoing research, and partnerships.

that is what the we the people our is.ution t 14 years ago, two visionary leaders had an idea to improve civic participation, and gathered others. thank you to steve, our chief hoffman.e, and d ee theght her name was d people. only tonight did i learn her last name. [laughter] those two put their head together -- put their heads together and said, what are we going to do to change the situation? out of that the society built the consortium to teach d.c. students about the constitution by visiting the places represented by the first three articles. each member of the consortium has a unique role no one else can fail, and together we make a

bigger impact than any of us can make on our own. we now know the program makes an impact, because we have followed the students. students who take the tour tell us they are more likely to vote, run for student government, and contact their elected officials. there teachers tell us they help the students will see the constitution is relevant in their lives and make them more likely to be involved in public service. ,he curriculum covers 12 items and because of some of the people in this room and some who are not with us today, 14,000 d.c. public school students have participated in this experience. you can see the names of consortium partners on the screen, and i would like them so we can thank you people from the national

archives, the national park service, come on, guys, restaurant associates, usa guided tours, capitol visitors center, the white house historical association and the white house visitor center. it is an incredible group. i want to tell you that having a group is great, but there has to be someone who is willing to pull the strings. that someone in this instance is lori mcnulty step. stand up. [applause] laura answered a cold email, and she said, i think this is a

logical thing, let's try it. and saidlked to people we should do this, and laura is fantastic. but she can't do it by yourself. i want the rest of the society staff, wherever you are, thank you. [applause] [applause] thank you. now i get to introduce the person that sent the cold email. i told you we were inspired by our program and wanted to expand it. enter soraya of nbc. she learned about our program and thought there might be a way to make it available to everyone , and nbc news learn was the answer. the consortium agreed it was a great opportunity, a donation was made to make it possible, and over this past year we have worked in concert with nbc news learn.

gage,thank you, soraya who is not just the head of nbc learn, but end emmy award journalist who has taken this on is a passion project. [applause] soraya: thank you, jane. i don't want to brag, but i have a pocket constitution on me. [applause] [applause] -- [laughter] when i reached out to laura and she started asking questions, she was so engaged. i actually sent out 100 emails over the past week and nobody got back to us with the passion and interest laura did. i said i am coming to washington and can i visit you, she said laura andet with

talked about the fact you are reaching 14,000 students in washington dc. we could take this project and reach 6 million students across the u.s. why should it only come to the kids of washington? what about kids in iowa? she got it. the spark was lit. the and i left, got on train, laura called a week later , we are going to do it, we got the funding. partnerships are really about one person on each side, and the passion of nbc news met the passion of the team under lara. e.a., -- yay, laura. [applause] started 14 years ago with visionaries who said, how do we take the archives of nbc

news from a vault in new jersey where the fall of the berlin wall, the moon landing, hours of incredible material, so it was a passion project. we put together a platform. 14 years later we are reaching 6 million students and teachers. we had a lot of luck in stem. we have been trying to get civics going for 13 years. wes is the really first time have put together an original content collection around civics. again, thank you to all of you. of theto introduce one most talented reporters with us tonight, kristin welker. kristen is an nbc news white house correspondent whose political reporting appears on nbc news and msnbc, including nightly news with lester holt, today, meet the press and nbc news.com. she began covering the white house in 2011 and her dynamic questioning and white house briefings is frequently highlighted by outlets across the world and across social

media. heree so proud to have her to moderate this battle. welcome kristin welker. [applause] kristin: thank you, soraya. that was a wonderful introduction. i appreciate it. i'm honored to be here tonight. absolute pleasure to work on the we the people constitution video series. we put a lot of work into it. it meant a lot to me. and for me, it was personal. i go to work every day and exercise my first amendment rights, try to participate in our democracy by holding the people of the white house and capitol hill to account. is something i take so seriously and something i never take for granted. was in eighthn i

grade coming to washington for the first time with my history thes, really learning about way the capital works firsthand, the way the government works, i was awestruck to be here. moments thatof the inspired the work i do every day . so this is such an important project, important day, that we are commemorating. i am honored to be a part of it. and we could not have a better panel to discuss this incredibly important issue tonight. the panel of experts here to discuss civic knowledge, it's challenge and also its opportunities in our country today. they are panelists that are filled with talent and accomplishment. we have their full bio in the program, but i am going to introduce them one by one. from the pew research center we have harold doherty.

[applause] take your seat as i call your name. from george washington university we have dr. denver brunsman. [applause] from the ashbrook center at ashland university, we have dr. tim haglund. take a seat, dr. haglund. [applause] inm mckinley technology hi washington dc, we have the 2019 history teacher of the year, miss alicia butler. [applause] >> i'm going to take my seat next to you. kristen: mr. doherty, give us a

sense of the data. how would you rate overall knowledge about civic engagement. based on everything i have read, we are getting better but have a long way to go. often depends, as the annenberg survey showed, our survey, all surveys about civic literacy and political awareness, it depends on how u.s. the question. bag.t is a mixed last year we did amaze her -- a major survey on democracy. asked, what is to be aat is important good citizen? look at the darker bars. this is where you see variance. 49% say it is very important to follow what happens in

government and politics. not such a great measure may be. i would say, vote, pay taxes, a broad consensus, following what happens in politics and government, less so. we gave people a seven-item quiz about current political matters, the constitution, guarantees under the constitution. here is the good news. when we ask people what right is guaranteed by the first amendment, an easy question for the people in this room, not so much for people around the country. 86% got that correct. pretty good. and this was done in 2018. we asked about which party controlled the house and senate. about 80% new the republican party controlled both houses. the republicanew party controlled all thousands.

not a bad result, perhaps reflected that there was a midterm election coming in partisan control would be up for grabs, but still not bad. the electoral college, people know at least the basic function. get a little less knowledge about procedures, say the vice president has the tie-breaking vote in the senate as opposed to the majority leader or somebody else. only about half know that. and for many years we have studied public knowledge of the filibuster, not so great. fewer than half know that 60 votes are needed to end the filibuster, an important marker in american politics. really the story of who knows what. we did a scale of what high knowledge would be, the four questions we selected from this group of seven. you have high knowledge if you get them all correct.

14% of the young people were high knowledge. we see this throughout surveys we have done on civic literacy and political engagement. wide educational and age differences, every time. we also know this is associated, what you know about the government, the constitution, is associated with your own political participation. have you contacted an elected official? have you publicly expressed support for a candidate on social media? knowledge high civic are most likely to engage in these behaviors. so it is related to political participation. can see a lot of numbers here, but these are numbers of people who have actually done things over the past year, past five years, in terms of political participation, beyond voting. volunteered for a campaign, low numbers there, not much age

difference, interesting and encouraging perhaps. also, attending a local government meeting, big differences in contacting an elected official. do that,e likely to better educated more likely to do that. you see these persistent agent education differences, where people who know more tend to be older people and people with greater education. with that i will wrap it up. risten: let me do a quick follow-up. the disparity between the number of people who say it is important to vote versus the number of people paying attention to politics, that stood out to me. you have a sense of why that is? : there are universal principles about civic engagement that people all embrace, and that is one of them.

voting is, in spite of the fact our turnout rate may not be the highest of western countries, at least people recognize the fact that voting is important. following government, not so much, people don't feel an obligation to follow news about government does much. it is very interesting and again, you see big age differences. young people tend to grow into it over time, but they start out at a low level. en: miss butler, what did you take away from the classroom, and how does that inform the ways in which we need to and hands lessons about civic engagement in the classroom? learned isg i have that our students desperately want to be engaged. last year we were teaching about world war i.

i made sure i brought in discussion about the harlem health fighters -- harlem hell fighters. there was a gentleman named james butler who lives in maryland and fought in the war, he was given the french medal of honor, came here and did not receive any recognition. he ended up committing suicide. aboutticle was talking how he should have gotten recognition. so i set out to do something. the kids were engaged. they loved the article. we were doing class activities. and i was alright, let's go onto the next topic and the kids were like, that is it? what are we going to do about it? area, he should have a street named after him, the metal of honor, what can we do as students?

to i didn't allow my lesson be open enough to be open to civic action. kristen: what did you learn and what is the lesson from other -- the lesson for other teachers to incorporate civic projects into their classrooms? lessons, number one. allow those opportunities, even if it is not something you initially planned for. make sure it is matters -- make sure it matters. no longer just write a letter to your representative. kids want to go out like members back in the 1960's, they don't want to just sit, they want to act, and they want to go in their neighborhood, what is happening in the area? finding an article about somebody that lives in their area that they care about. : dr., what do you think

accounts for the lack of civic knowledge, not only in classrooms, but more broadly in these numbers we saw? licia's answer hits on it a little. part of it, sounds weird to say, but we are addressing it as an information problem. and we are shedding its significance in doing that. the issue isn't that kids aren't getting the right information, it is that we are not finding the right ways to make it something meaningful to them. this is stuff that matters the most, matters of injustice and justice, right and wrong, that kind of thing. i had my daughter watch one of the videos about george mason said, what didi you think, and she said, so he is good, right? [laughter] she's trying to figure out who

is this person, what is he stand for, so you can imagine, as you meet this mind, whether that is your primary source document , otherwise classroom you are trying to figure out their mind, the principles it stood for, and evaluate that life and see how it applies to your own life. en: this goes back to the idea of personalizing it and drawing those connections and finding those opportunities. tim: absolutely. kristen: why is that such a challenge? : education is an information delivery service too often, and that is almost exactly backwards. what we need to do is jar

students and make them think and almost begin from a place of questioning rather than, here are the answers. think theyhat, i will naturally start to want to know more and you will get better test scores out of the process, but that would be a coincidence, or a happy byproduct rather than the thing you are going for. kristen: i hate to say we have been too focused on stem curriculum, but obviously that is critical, how do we readjust and say both are equally critical? alicia: we just need to allow opportunity for that in our lessons. district principals, we need to put as much focus on that as we do test scores. it is not as easy to assess

levels of civic engagement. kristen: let's go back to the 1st constitution day in 1787. what was the environment like then? what was the level of political divisiveness at that time? how difficult was that moment? professor brunsman: great question. it was 232 years ago. and we celebrate correctly the constitution today as the most successful frame of national government that ever existed. but i think we would be surprised how divided america was then. if we had the pew research center then, we would have seen there was probably more support for the existing government and the articles of confederation then this new experiment that

was forming in philadelphia. you have to really think about how new this was. it was different from what they were used to. had had a government that defeated great britain. and even the framers of the constitution, they weren't happy with the end product, but they had a lot of humility about it. james madison took the best notes of the constitutional convention. and benjamin franklin made sure he gave the last big speech. he said, i confess there are several parts of this constitution which i do not at present to prove. but i am not sure i shall never approve them, for having lived long, i have experienced many instances of being obliged by many considerations or forward information to change opinions

on many subjects which i once found right, but found otherwise. it is therefore that the older i grow, the more apt i am to doubt my own judgment and pay more respect to the judgment of others. with our students, if we could get them act to that place where they understood this was a contested process, and franklin abouthe day by talking how optimistic he was, the chair george washington had been sitting in, he had been staring at it at the convention and it he saidn on it, and that that was a rising sun, not a setting sun. so to bring the energy that existed at that time and bring it back to the classroom, is crucial. kristen: one thing that is powerful about those remarks that you read for us, thank you, is that we think about it in today's context.

so often we hear the phrase, everyone is so divided, we have never been more divided, and yet they accomplished that act then went arguably they were dealing with very significant divisions as well. how did they push beyond them? take us back to how the american people felt at the time? it was thenunsman: called the pennsylvania state house. it wasn't until the 1820's it became known as independence hall. when they were meeting at the pennsylvania state house, there were sworn to secrecy. would havew hot it been with the windows closed. you might not want to be the reporter in the room. [laughter] although it might be a big scoop. professor brunsman: i would give anything kristen: i would give anything. professor brunsman: they took it

very seriously. there weren't a lot of leaks of what was happening. so when the plan came out, there was incredible interest people had, and vigorous debate. --t gets back to the people back to the we the people. what gave honesty to those words was the ratifying conventions in the states to approve or not approve this document. rhode island in particular took more than a year to approve the document. so they continued through that process. the lesson today is that it required that the bank. it also required compromise. the original constitution didn't have the first 10 amendments, didn't have the bill of rights. the federalists, people who supported the constitution, didn't think there were necessary, they thought they were implied. but by giving in and saying, we

will add those formal protections of individual liberties, people who opposed the constitution, antifederalists, came on board. once they did, an amazing thing happened. there was no permanent opposition in the united states to that form of government. you didn't have a group that ran to the hills and waged a guerrilla war on the government. everybody came on board because there had been the political process, and that compromise. kristen: the word of compromise, it is such a powerful word. we the american people look for it. how critical is it when you are in a classroom talking to your students, you teach them about the constitution and their rights, even the context of how much compromise was required to get there? is that a part of civic engagement as well? >> [inaudible] if you put yourself in each

other's shoes, it is very much, one of the most important aspects of being a citizen of this country and continue -- can you hear me better now? and considering to make sure that is part of the discussion. talk about politics and government. kristen: for you? prof. brunsman: well, so i think with compromise, the root of the word, which is we are making a promise together. that is what com-promise m eans. but we can only do that in so far as we trust one another and have a mutual respect. i think that is really what civic education, a big part of what it is trying to do. jefferson late in his life wrote this letter reflecting on the declaration of independence. jefferson had squabbles with everybody. can read all about that, too. but in that particular letter he with respect into our

rights and the british their contravention of those rights, we have one opinion over here." we thought the same way about this thing. as america's there has to be the super -- above partisan level agreement about something in common. that's something we have got to work on. kristen: within that context, how adaptable, we're hearing these stories quite frankly, which are wonderful. how adaptable are these primary texts over time? sort of a living document. >> yeah, yeah. well, so, i guess it depends on which way you are using adaptable. i think we all bring our own experience to the documents. definitely. and i think they can be used in a variety of levels of education. there is a wonderful story from a teacher that i know of a student who learned to read via the declaration of independence.

the first day of history class, that was handed out. he tossed the paper back at the teacher. i can't read that. the teacher misheard. i can't read that. he checked his file and sure enough the kid's got a third grade reading level. the teacher says i want you to circle each word that you know. by the end, he learned the whole document and could read the whole thing. but what i love about that is that the kid is proving the words on the page he's reading. he is proving that self-evident truth that everyone is created equal. kristen: mr. dower d, when you look at the data -- mr. dougherty. gauging a range of different levels but when you look at the constitution specifically, do people see it as, do you get get the sense that they know what is in it,

that they understand it, that they grasp its enormity? >> they grasp the generalities. they have a good sense of the generalities. american citizens know the basics. going beyond the basics on almost any subject, i think, you get a lot more un familiarity. kristen: how do you make that happen> ? how do you go beyond the basics of a document that is so complex? >> it is complex. education is part of it. media as part of it. one of the things we have notice is the trends in media, people did not use to have so many choices as they do today. and so, people can also choose could out in a way they not 30, 40, 50 years ago from information about their own government. you see the effects of that as well. kristen: absolutely.

historical, in terms, when you think back to the 18th century, what was it that made this so remarkable? the constitution accomplishes something that had not been done up to that point and something that the british have struggled with in north america in the american colonies and something that the new american states has struggled with after winning independence and that was figuring out how to share power between a national, central government and local governments. british answer for that is that we have all the power in london. parliament, the king and parliament are sovereign. the answer the american states had was, no. each of us individual states has that sovereignty. there was literally 13 republics in the united states. much closer to the european union today than our present-day

united states. to kind of show that point, all the way up to the civil "is."s "our" not but what the constitution did. said, no, the people are sovereign. we the people. in people give permission the sense to their representatives to make decisions for them in this republic. and so, through the system of federalism, sharing of power between the national government and the state governments, they've figured out something the british weren't able to do. it was a real breakthrough. we often talk about american exceptionalism today. my answer to that is that america was very exceptional at the end of the 18th century, the only place on earth that had

given people these rights. if we're less exceptional today it is mostly because other places have adopted those. kristen: and that was going to be my follow-up question. how unique is it today? >> a lot of these ideas america has exported to the world and people have made in different ways. so, i think it's less unique. but, you know, i say this about good teaching. . there isno plagiarism and good teaching . there is just best practices. the same thing is true in the making of governments. there a best practices. i think we have the formula. kristen: one of the things that strikes me as we think about the framers of the constitution, they seem to have an ability to see into the future, to envision scenarios that had not yet happened. it's a document that continues to be tested throughout time. >> absolutely.

and probably the worst feature of the articles of confederation that doomed it is that it said all 13 states to change it. it needed all of them. i think one could argue that maybe the constitution itself is very, very difficult to change. that is part of it stability. but it has happened 27 times. 27 amendment. i think that was one of the really important things, because everything from the righgtt to vote for african-american men with a 15 amendment and the direct election of senators, the 17th amendment, the 19th amendment, women voting, 18-year-olds voting, the 26th amendment. all of a sudden this document that in many ways was not very democratic has been made democratic overtime. kristen: do you want to weigh in and are there moments in time

when you see the constitution being tested in new ways? >> yeah. uh, so, constitutional law is not -- i'm a renaissance and reformation scholar. but, no. [laughter] but to that point, though, what i do like about it is that we have to be very sure about the direction we are going. what i like about the difficulty in changing it is that it forces coalitions to emerge. and some of them have been very unlikely coalitions. and that makes citizens have to work together. i like that about it. we made a couple of mistakes there. most of the changes we have made have been pretty good. kristen: what do you think are the missing links in our civic, in the public civic knowledge

and civic engagement? >> you know, the connection, one of the things i'm struck by. you can argue in our survey that perhaps people not knowing about the filibuster, say, is not that important and pretty technical. a technical detail that matters a lot in today's world and making that connection between these principles and between a high school student principles and what is going on in government and politics today. i think making it relevant is really key. kristen: and when you think about getting people energized because, obviously we are entering a very heated political moment, another election. you have politicians out there on the campaign trail. and it's interesting because

either you talk to people, to what extent are they paying attention? a lot of people say it is too early. people seem exhausted to some extent by it. how do we as a society combat that exhaustion? >> well, i have to say, our other political data, our election data, people are very excited about this election. people are very engaged in the upcoming election. the early tests, the early readings we are getting, 2018, we know the turnouts for midterms comparatively to other nations is not that high in congressional elections but it was a 100 year record. so, we're seeing that same trend continue into 2020 where people say they are following the news more than say four, eight, 12 years ago. the early indications are it is a high-stakes election.

and people are paying attention. kristen: how do you foster that type of excitement about politics and political system at an early age? >> i'm glad you asked. ofber one, i feel that one the reasons why you may not get that much participation or excitement is a lot of times particularly students of color they do not feel any connection. a lot of time teachers when they teach it, they start in 1789. ends in 1787. no one in that room looks like me. people like me were not able to debate about it. were not even able to legally read the constitution. we have to make sure we expand the narrative of the constitution. it was people that looks like me that challenge this country to make sure we were living up to the ideals that are expressed in it. a lot of the additional on them

is that we talked about that were so difficult to add on were put there because of the efforts of people that look like me. black americans, women, minorities. if you do that, students will feel like this is my birthright. i have to do it because my ancestors were involved in this as well. kristen: it is such an important point. it is actually my next topic of that i want to bring up which is that there are a lot of missing voices when we have these conversations. people of color, minorities. how do you make sure and what do your students say to you about wanting their hear their own voices? >> yeah, you know, they will definitely say, what about people of color?that is the first question . constitutiona convention and that very famous painting. who's present ? the the fact that certain groups

are not present, how do you think that will influence what comes out of this secret meeting? we have open discussions about that. we do not allow the story to end there. we continue to talk about how the document has ground and mean so much more to so many other people. n appreciation and students begin to realize this is my birthright. get involved. kristen: and for all of you, when i talk to my father about when he was in school, he talked about how different the lessons looked. why idid it take so long to stat to learn some of these lessons? because i think we are starting to learn them and implement them. is important to find those to keepvoices in order that connection going for people of all ages, young people in particular. >> yeah, absolutely. the first thing is what we're doing here to big knowledge that. there were people that were present. and i think it is important in teaching about the united states to point out, i think one of the

really valuable things that came out of the founding era was a a lot of talk in universals, about universal rights. the most famous example is equaln are created to thomas jefferson was being completely honest, he would've said all white men with a certain amount of property and not women and not people of color, down the list. but he said all men are created equal. and people throughout american history, whether it is at the women's rights convention in oreca falls, new york, whether it is abraham lincoln and the gettysburg address, or whether it is martin luther ankg in the civil rights movement, they have taken those words and they are liberal constructionists. no, it is not just white men, and it is not just men. that is all americans. and so, i think that is one viable thing. that is one reason why we still have a living revolution in this

country and why we fight on the same issues that people did 200 years ago because we still live with the frame of government that was created then. we're still a young country and still working out these issues. i think if we can tell young people whatever their background is that they are part of this process. that's really critical. kristen: what is the number show in terms of communities of color and their level of engagement awareness? >> i think you see some of the same age patterns and education. age and education are key. i'd like tone survey question. we ask a survey question about the constitution and the supreme court. should the supreme court base its more on how the founder saw the constitution or should it evolve into current times? you see a difference of opinion

there, along partisan lines and people of color. but the fact that people are still differing over it is an interesting. this is still a relevant debate. for american citizens. i kind of like that question. [laughter] kristen: well, and i think the issue of partisanship is a significant one and we touched on a briefly, but i want to go back to it. to what extend are your students aware of the deep divisions that exist right now in our political system? have you talked to them about it? >> oh, they are very aware. got emotions, that's great. emotions, they definitely want you to go out and do something about it. i always make sure actions are based on facts, and that they are informed. we got to do our research and we have to listen to each other. we cannot go off of rumor or what you see on social media. that's definitely a very big

thing in my classroom. you came in with this idea, can you support? what are the facts showing? do research. kristen: what do you think the lesson is when you look at partisanship right now? as we talked about in the constitution was written and framed it was a very deeply divided society as well. but what are the sort of lessons from that today? >> well, i think, i think the nature of ideology has changed over time. it's become much more rigid. used to have presidencies to be able to say we have our day-to-day differences but at the end of the day we are all americans and things like that. i don't know how much you see that anymore. so, to the extent that we cannot put countries first. we do not have statements like henry clay anymore that people

talk about is being able to overcome compromise to the extent that we used to. yeah. kristen: dr. brunson? the founders were extremely nervous about political parties and didn't want parties. george washington most famously, and why did he not want parties? it's because he thought parties were in it for themselves, not for the country. so they were very cognizant of the fact that they were founding a republic. of republic, the common thing, the public thing. stepo, it's a fateful once they had forged parties. parties are absolutely critical to the functioning of our country today. not necessarily a bad thing but i think if we could mix that with that sort of older understanding of what it meant to be small r republican, that

would be a very happy place to be. kristen: we are largely still a two-party system. obviously, you have people has run as independents. running for president as independents. do you think the framers envisioned that, and do you anticipate that changing at any point? >> so, they didn't plan very well for parties to be honest. they thought more in terms of the different branches of government. that is what our checks and balances are designed to do. ure congress works well with the executive. the parties for a wrench into that. think that again the historical context, that knowledge that we know our system is not necessarily originally set up for that should make everyone aware that it is necessary to be on their best behavior, to be several, -- together.l to work you do have to compromise in the american system to get anything done. >> madison talks about with the

institutions that the man shall be tied to the place, meaning that if you're a member of congress you can protect the interest of congress. that's hilarious. it is so much more partisan now. i don't think that was anticipated. kristen: do your numbers show anything about third parties, about partisanship? have people weighed in on that? do people want there to be more political parties? >> when you see the data, people in principle like the idea of other parties. and they don't like the partisanship they see. but they themselves are increasingly partisan. so there's a lot of contradictions there. kristen: i'm going to open this up for closing remarks and just a moment but just very briefly and i know you brought some of your students here. you didn't. >> sorry. kristen: what is it that you

hope your students would take from a conversation or discussion like this? >> it involves them. they have every right to be a part of the conversation. they have every right to be part of the conversation and they have a responsibility to make sure that the american people are definitely living up to the ideas that are stressed in our great document, the constitution. kristen: i'm just going to go down the line. give me her closing remarks and what you hope everyone takes from this discussion. >> well, i think that there's ben some, i don't want to pollyanna about this but i think there is a lot of reason for optimism. america is such a great story, such a difficult story, but it e studentscan giv to engage with and fall in love with in their different way. and because there are so many different americans who have contributed to that story.

there's someone for everyone. to look up to add in b -- and admire. and live out those american principles. >> i began with franklin. when franklin less the pennsylvania state house at the end of those proceedings, it was a famous story. he leaves and meets a woman on the street. that's elizabeth willing powell, a female politician. she's hosted salons in her house in philadelphia.s she asked him, what have we, republic or a monarchy? he said, a republic if you can keep it. and we have a primary source for that. ote thathenry wriote down. whether it happened or not, the sentiment is crucial. a republic if you can keep it. a republic you do not just sleep

on the job. being a citizen. requires education, it requires vigilance, participation. in part, those expectations of citizenship better in this country. certainly knew citizens of this country, the process they go through, they feel that. all americans could feel those responsibilities, the expectations would be great. kristen: as a native philadelphia and that is one of my favorite stories. thank you for sharing that. >> i think we've talked on the awful lot about civic literacy. it's a mixed bag. the rise of partisanship and some of this intense feeling we have around the 2020 election and things like that has for better or worse engaged a lot of americans. it's engaging people, these democratic debates are getting high ratings. we're seeing a lot of advanced interests. the negative partisanship that

we see but it also has a positive side effect of getting people more engaged with our government. kristen: fantastic. this is a fantastic conversation. to all of you for being here and for your insight and for helping us to mark this really important day. thank you. >> and we have a special gift that we want to thank each of our panelists. one of the special treasures that we have that capital historical society is that when they were, one of the times they were redoing the capitol, they donated the marble from the steps to the historical society. and so, we have been able to create various props. kristen, and for every mantle of the panel we have -- [inaudible] kristen: thank you so much.

how fantastic. >> thank you. >> that is so lovely. [inaudible] >> beautiful. >> i was even going to give one to beth but she could buy it at the gift shop. and she probably get the discount. i want to thank everyone who came. you know, here is how this goes. . we are engaged in a process of teaching and engaging there so delighted at historical society, has this partnership. because that lets us go from the 14,000 children we see in person, the people here today, to the people who are looking at it in a virtual manner. and so, we're blessed to live in a country with the

declaration of independence. to live in assed country with the constitution and we are blessed to have the kind of participation that we had. speaker pelosi took her time to participate in these videos. you all may know she has got a lot of other things to do. senator blunt, senator murkowski, representeative fox. senators and congresspeople who came and participated. think that like to we are in a place where there's a lot of work to be done but we have a path to doing that work. go back to the time of the constitution. otes famouslse qu people.

there are people we never heard of. randolpyhia governor s said the government is for the people. and the misfortune was that the people had no agency in the government before. needs toe government be binding on the people are not the people, the proper persons to examine its merits for defects. the people teaches the people how do examine the .erits or the defects so there are more merits than defects and our job now is to take what we have learned and to go forth and strengthen our democracy to help teachers like

mrs. butler by providing tools. deos, which you have seen on the screen, if you take your program, on the back, there is a qr code, and if you have any clue how to use that. you can make the videos up here on your phone. knowing how to use it, you can type in nbclearns/we the people. for those of us are from another generation. fervemy firm and hope -- nt hope that this tool will be a step and that we will have many more opportunities like this. thank you for being here. thank you for being here.

thank you, kristen. thank you, all. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> on american history tv, sunday at 6 p.m. eastern on american artifacts, we'll preview the votes for women exhibit at the smithsonian national portrait gallery. >> victoria was well ahead of her time. she started her own business as a wall street banker. she advocated for free love, which means sex outside of marriage. author discusses her book "democracy and truth, a short history." oneo one person, no institution, no king, priest, national research body, specific caste we get to call all the shots. >>

>> recent missile attacks on saudi arabian oil processing facilities initially disrupted more than half of the kingdom's crude oil out. according to "the washington post" that is about 6% of global supply. next on "reel america." the oilntary on how industry began in saudi arabia. desert venture is a standard oil of california company film, showing their well drilling efforts from 19 to -- from 1930 two until about 1948. about 1948. until ♪