>> the heritage foundation hosts a panel on the challenges facing the american history curriculum in public education. panelists discuss how parents and others can get involved in what children are learning about the past. the foundation provided the video. >> good afternoon. my name is angela sailor and i am the vice president of the fulmer institute at the heritage foundation. on behalf of our president welcome to our first principle townhall series. this past year, our history and founding sought to distort our

heritage and to change it. during this time of crisis, your heritage foundation has produced the first principles townhall webinar series to speak into this moment. offering participants the tools to get children in an honest understanding of our history and to help them appreciate america's political and cultural achievements. president ronald reagan stated that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. preserving our liberties requires knowledge of our origins. we are delighted that you are joining us for part two of our parent townhall series. dr. joseph loconte will explain how exceptional the american revolution was in world history, and why it could easily have

collapsed into tyranny like the french revolution. joining joel will be -- joining and an informed community of parents offer the best possible roadmap to a flourishing civil society for all americans. dr. loconte for heritage is full near institute is our leading scholar and a former associate professor of history of the keynes college in new york city and author of the new york times bestseller a hobbit, integrate or, how j.r.r. tolkien and cs lewis rediscovered faith, friendship, and heroism. as we welcome dr. loconte we encourage you to send questions throughout the event as we will

have an opportunity to respond to them later. joe, over to you. joseph: thank you for that introduction, thank you all for joining us today we have a terrific program lined up. before i introduce our panel, let me offer some perspective to remind us what it is we are fighting to preserve, what is under attack. imagine a group of 11 missionaries tired of tearing mary, hungry for liberty, and ready to throw off the chains of political oppression. they are prepared to risk everything for freedom, they want an end to monarchy. what they want is a republic, a democratic form of government based on we the people. they launch the revolution of freedom and to the astonishment of the world they are successful , they toppled the old regime, they defeat the king and his army and write a new constitution.

there is no sign of the dawn of universal plus because once the revolution it's going the champagne stops flowing, something goes wrong with the revolution. instead of delivering liberty, equality, and fraternity, it produces new forms of oppression, injustice, human misery. instead of a quest for enlightenment, it cracks down on free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion. instead of democracy we get mob rule and the reign of terror. i am talking about the french revolution which began july 14, 1789, bastille day or independent safely french. if you are july 4 -- american july 4 is the best day to dine at a french restaurant because that will be the only time a french winter will be nice to you. the french revolution began with

a rage against power and ended with a government powerless to govern, a man on horseback, a dictator for life. there were two revolutions for freedom in the 18th century. the one that began in paris collapsed into tyranny, another for freedom was launched in philadelphia in 1776. it began with these immortal words, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that there are certain rights among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of these people to alter or abolish it and institute new government. here for the first time in

history, a political revolution declares that natural inequality and natural rights of every human being, universal rights that cannot be taken away because they come from the end of god. was it a radical event or a conservative event? think about it, most of the americans were from england and betting against the ground claiming their chartered rights as englishmen. they are already among the freest people of the world, they have the protections of the magna carta which said in a political leader was above the law they have the english bill of rights established -- established during the -- the townhall, and they have the writings of the english philosopher john locke, all the ideas that launched the american revolution was published 1689,

the concepts of human equality, freedom, natural rights. the responsibility of government to protect these rights and the right to revolution if government tramples our rights it is all there. was the american revolution a radical or conservative? maybe it was both. the question now is, why did the revolution succeed? where the french revolution failed. the answer can be found here in this book. unlike the french, the americans drew strength from the teachings of the bible. the narrative arc of scripture, the story of god rescuing the jews from slavery in egypt and bringing them into the freedom of the promised land. in the new testament the story of jesus rescuing his people from the slavery of sin and the fear of death.

the american revolutionaries, the bible was a freedom book. next to the declaration and constitution, the bible might be called america's third founding document. unlike in france, the american revolution was backed up by the nation clergy from all denominations. take the reverend john witherspoon, one of the 56 signers of the declaration lost a son in the revolutionary war. he delivered assistance to general washington, he was called the highest son of a as any man in america. he personified a bond between faith and freedom that characterized the revolution. the americans had a lot going for them, they don't pair down everything that came before like the french. they claim their political inheritance from great britain and its ancient constitution. if they have the support of the churches, what about the elephant in the room?

what about the existence of slavery in the american colonies? the english author samuel johnson pointed out the hypocrisy of the american revolutionaries, many who owned slaves. how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes. i think many americans had a guilty conscience about slavery. patrick henry confessing his guilt and hypocrisy sing he looked forward to the time on an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable people. the american revolution creates the opportunity because a declaration proclaims for the first time that a nation was coming into existence as a sworn enemy of human slavery. they revolution puts the institution of -- on notice all of the world. their days will be numbered.

until recently, we used to know these facts. we used to know them. abraham lincoln knew them, he said he never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the declaration of independence. why did the american revolution succeed? it succeeded because at the moment of its birth it brought together the right ideas, the right institutions, and the right kinds of people to lead them. what kind of men and women did it produce? there were no campaigns to silence dissent. there was no assault only christian churches were teachings of the bible. there was no guillotine. there was not a robespierre among them, their man on horseback was not a napoleon. he was a washington. the man who resigned his military commission to an elected assembly, he resigned it obediently, willingly for the

sake of the republic. what kind of men and women did this revolution produce? listen to the words of abigail adams writing to her son during the war. she was trying to persuade her son to get on a boat come across the atlantic, and join his father in france to help the cause of freedom. john quincy adams want to go he wanted to go to harvard. his mother has a different sense of obligations, here is a piece of what she wrote. these are the times it was a genius would wish to live. it is not in the stone column of life the great characters have formed, the habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties, contending with difficulties and great necessities call out great virtues inform the character of the hero and statesman. i put the question to you, if you got a letter like that from your mother what would you do? he would get on the boat.

you know you would. the character of the hero and statesman is forged in the fires of a great contest. a great difficulty in the crucible of war, and war has come upon them. with a reliance on providence we pledged our lives and fortunes and our sacred honor. the greatest political revolution for human freedom in the history of the world has begun. thanks for listening to that, let us introduce our all-star panel. the man by the penalty join us, i at least get to moderate them. i will introduce them briefly. the full biography's are available, there we go. william mattix director of the

stanley marshall center for education he works with policymakers and parents to promote reforms to make it possible for all k-12 students to obtain a high-quality education. charlotte mcguire vice president for the ohio state board of education, she and her husband launched the xl afterschool program that engages parents to help elementary students improve achievement and attendance. darryl owens, graduate from grove city worked for 15 years in the health care industry. he and his wife are parents to a nine-year-old, and 13-year-old. welcome all to the stable. i have a few questions coming in, let me throw it open to darryl. anyone can answer this question. darryl, what brought you to the

point that you decided to speak with the heads of the school for your children attend? and what was the response from those officials? what dragged you into this discussion? darryle: sure. we moved our kids from one school -- a different school to two catholic schools at the beginning of this school year. that would have been august of 2020. grateful that they are in school all day every day, albeit with masks. they are there. we move them because we started to be concerned the things that were being taught.

don and i felt we could deal with that at home. we could supplement and correct certain information at home and we were doing that. i think we were successful. however, when the issues of race and critical race theory started to creep in to the everyday discussions in the classrooms, chapel, things like that, we decided the rating is on the wall we will move our kids to a different school. it was the right move for us. however, i was encouraged over and over to not assume that all is well in your child's

classroom and all is well with the curriculum your children learn. i have to say, i was under that assumption. i then decided one day, probably after reading something, to reach out to the heads of school to say, how are you handling all this information? and if you to integrate the 69th project into the curriculum? i got two answers. one, from one head of school, thank you for your call this is the best call i have gotten all day, because i gave them my opinion of those things. thank you so much, as long as i am the head of the school it won't happen here. the other one was a very interested in getting information, very willing to consider all points of view and perspectives.

that gave me cause for concern. i have maintained contact with that head of school. it is our concern because our children are -- they need to know who they are beyond the color of their skin. joseph deb -- joseph: charlotte to you, you are the vice president of the ohio state board of education. what have you learned, as we talk to the audience, what have you learned or encouraged you about the challenges out there in the capacity to make a difference? charlotte: i got out of a meeting tuesday and i made an appeal that everyone on our 19 member board, one of the largest in the nation, needed to learn

for themselves what critical race theory is about. i have been receiving letters from parents all over the state of ohio, they are concerned about what their children are being taught. some of the local boards are engaging, some are not. the question becomes, parents hold us accountable. hold your local school board accountable. we are a local controlled -- a lot of education determination happens in the local district. we are the resource and set up the monitor on our websites. say for example the project should up on our website, the perception is that we support this, which we were clueless about. we don't know how it got on the website. that begins to make us, as policymakers, to find out why. the reason i care is because

ideas have consequences. inconsistent ideals mean inconsistent people. the parent is the first foundational support for education. parents i have 44 districts in my territory besides across the state. i find out a lot of them are clueless until it is too late. joseph: wow, i will come back to you. i want to give bill a chance here. we are pretty good in our crowd about identifying what the threats are, the problems out there where there is a 1619 project or critical race theory. what else is needed in terms of the response of concerned parents who want an accurate portrayal of our history?

bill: we need to push back against destructive narratives that destroy the past and contribute to cultural division today. i don't think a critique alone is enough. i believe we need to be offering a counter narrative, a true narrative. often times, those that are advancing the narratives that are causing so much trouble and division often like to portray the debate as, we are here to give you an honest view of history opposed to a sugarcoated view that you would get traditionally. i think that what we needed to do is not fall into the trap of letting them characterize our point of view in those ways, and

that offering examples from history of people who had often blistering critiques, but presented that those in the context of embracing our founding principles and overarching values is important. the best examples of this are frederick douglas and martin luther king jr.. if you look at frederick douglass is the fourth of july speech, and is a blistering critique of slavery, but it is also a surprisingly strong and compelling defense of our nation's ideals and nx rotation to his audience to say, we all embrace these ideals, let's do a better job of living up to them. if you can say the same thing with martin luther king and his i do have a dream speech.

as a note that needs to be redeemed, in another case are they attacking our foundations or suggesting that america is irredeemable, but simply that we have work to do and as lovers of this country, we need to get about that work to live up to the ideals we all share. that sort of constructive view of patriotism rather than one that is critical and seeks to tear down and it divide is, i think, a narrative that americans will embrace. i think it is honest and true and gives a complete picture to our children of how they should see this country. joseph: thank you for that. that is terrific. at the risk of shameless self promotion, other people are working on this also leo trying to produce that kind of cereal,

a series were working on right now to make available to parents . i want to bring it over to charlotte and then darryle, take this question wherever you like. you being on the board of education i imagine you have colleagues who don't agree with you or your positions, and are a standard you're taking the positions you are taking. i'm curious to know how you interact with them and where you have been able to make progress. what kind of discussions you have that make the lights go on and the scales fall from the eyes, something. charlotte: i speak the truth and love. one of the things i demand of all my colleagues is that you know for yourself. i always tell my children there are three sides to the story, your side, my side, and the truth. we need to ascertain what is the truth in this case? parents need a simple message,

even in critical race theory one of the tenants is knowledge is socially constructed. that is not true. they wanted to put away science and reason but you want to use science for masking the children but you don't want to use science when it comes to educated children. my concern is that we need a simple message that every parent can embrace, every parent can talk, they need to hold their local school boards accountable. they need to be educated and i don't know how you do that in a couple of pages. we need a message to push back. i am willing to risk all, there are people there, if you are truly there for your students, if you are truly there for the future of your state or this country, you have to do what is

right at any cost. joseph: it is making me think, what you just said, maybe we need more collaboration with you in crafting the kind of response based off of your own experience. crafting that two or three page document. charlotte: i'm sorry. that is so important. we just had our state associations president of the school board be a victim of cancel culture. he resigned, he had just been appointed -- or elected as head of the school board association. he wants to do the right thing. he is part of a team i am working with to get information into the hands of parents. they are the taxpayers, they are the front line defense for their children but they have to know what is going on. words have consequences. matter of fact, we just

considered a resolution relating to funding the overall preamble said public schools are foundational to democracy. i saw three red flags immediately. part of the critical race theory is that either democracy -- it's not about republic. we are a republic. a government for, of, and by the people. and the people of the parents. joseph: an excellent point. i don't think we can emphasize it enough that the actual power people have, that ordinary parents have. it reminds me of that moment in poland and solidarity movement when john paul ii visited poland, a catholic pope visiting a catholic communist country and they are turning out by the millions to see him, hear him speak. one of the people in the crowd later said we realized that we the people have the power, we

are the majority in the are the minority, the communist leaders. i wonder if we need that kind of awakening somehow. charlotte: one of the words we have to be careful of his equity. it's part of the -- what i call critical race theory framework. when you talk about equity versus equality. joseph: we will come back to that point before we are done. over to you darryle. you are a parent, you have a couple of kids in school. one of the questions i am sure some parents are wondering is how you talk to your children about this? talk to us about that.

darryle: i am very honest, we are honest with them. my mother was honest with me when i was growing up about race and anything she could think of. i have many other issues too, sometimes i would say to honest. i appreciate that now, being an adult and a father of two kids. we are honest with them. we emphasize with them that everyone does not think the way we do. in fact, where we live most people don't, at least not that we encounter. to miss mcguire's point, encouraging them to speak the truth and say their opinion in a respectful way, we encourage them, if you have questions about a teacher says at school please ask us. and we ask them. we are probing parents, we are

constantly asking them what did you learn in school today? what did joey say about such and such? what did they say about the protests? we don't sugarcoat anything. they are both maturing that way, they can handle it. if they don't get it they ask us. if they don't want to hear anymore they say yeah i got it. honesty has been our friend. joseph: that is a terrific strategy over to you here bill. the james madison institute you have developed some programs, do you want to tell us a bit about that i don't want to miss that, go ahead. bill: we do a supplemental

curriculum that we release every september called celebrate freedom that goes out during silvered freedom week and unpacks that passage that you cited earlier from the declaration of independence giving students an understanding of that. at the year, doing other programs and activities with other institutions and programs. one of my favorite things to do is a naturalization ceremony where we see a naturalization ceremony to interact with some of the new citizens. and then they take the quiz for naturalized citizens to see if they can pass it. when we do this the students come away with a respect for these individuals who care enough about becoming americans.

to answer the questions and all the rest, many of them recognize their own ingratitude might be the right word? how many things we take for granted and don't even reflect on how blessed we are as americans to enjoy many of the privileges we do. one of the things going forward we are planning to do is ask students whether they think there should be some sort of rite of passage, like you see in religious groups sometimes. the confirmation process or bar mitzvah process where people who are born into a community are expected to embrace the ideas and values of that community in some way.

i am not advocating for that when it comes to u.s. citizenship but there is a sense in which a lot of young people never really stop, pause, reflect and in some way and go about the process of embracing what it means to be american, and the ideals represented by our country. joseph: thank you for that. i want to get more on resources out there. charlotte, back to you, it seems to many of us that the radical stuff that has been going on at the college level, uc berkeley. back in the 60's and 70's they were chanting western sieve has got to go. teaching western civilization has become so problematic at the cause level but now we see this radicalism for the first time in public education. i want to give you another

opportunity to unpack this about what our audience, our parents need to be aware of, the warning signs things to be careful of and that strategically what they can do. unpack it a bit more for us. charlotte: the thing parents have to do is active listening. they have got to listen, understand, and validate what is going on in the school. i tell my daughter, keep your children talking. that will be an indication if you don't know what might be going on, especially words like equity, or democracy, or intersectionality. there are key buzzwords that parents need to listen for. we had a woman at the board meeting this past tuesday, she gave such a compelling story about her daughter.

she was referred by a school psychologist to a gender clinic without her knowledge. what happened, we have to be careful even in the current administration's desire to teach civic activism, so to speak. what we are seeing in college campuses does not start happening in pre-k-12 grade. they are telling students in some districts in ohio pick a topic you stand for, write your senator. we have had walkouts, and in some cases the parents don't know about it. when the school is teaching -- when the school teaching conflicts with your family values that is a red flag. joseph: we have a question on this point, what steps do you recommend taking to find out if critical race theory and that the 1619 project have been adopted?

what steps can you take to find out if they have become part of the curriculum? charlotte: i tell my parents first of all bridge the gap between the home and school. know your children's teacher. ask questions. if nothing else, ask the school principal. every school has a curriculum director, what is being taught? ask questions in such a way you get them talking. keep notes. i encourage them to talk to the superintendent and i ask them to share with other parents they need to have dialogue in their communities because parents need to be educated, activated, and mobilized to go to older elected local school boards.

joseph: darryle, let us pick up that point about working together with other parents. i cannot imagine if you are a parent out there you can sometimes think i am on this on my own, who else feels the same way? when they might as well be part of a silent majority. what is the experience darryle, in working with the parents? darryle: i would say many parents are afraid. they don't want to speak up, they don't want to cause controversy. not because it will reflect on them, but the effect it could have on their children. and, how their children might be treated by others. i volunteer a lot at my son's school especially. importantly, at my doctors school parents are, i call it, locked out because of covid. i do stand outside the -- outside.

at my son's school we serve lunch sometimes and you talk to parents there sometimes. i would say engaging them on a personal, practical level has been the best for me. i am not calling parents in saying, i called the head of school and said such and such. no. i want to rub shoulders with them in a setting where -- pull it the same direction. joseph: i'm sorry, go ahead. darryle: i think being present in school as much as you can, especially in these times, is so important because those conversations, he will heal her -- here what is coming up. joseph: communicating your investment in the school for the sake of your kids and the kids around them. i don't have children, but i can imagine how it would be an

anxious thing for a parent to approach a high school teacher or administrator. they fear would be, now my student will be marked out as a child of the troublemaker. there is a different attitude toward the child. you can imagine that anxiety, you are knotting there what do you think about that? darryle: i have a parent/colleague at my doctors school where that has happened to her. her daughter is the parent of the troublemaker. it is what it is. you do it anyway because that is the right thing to do. you do have to be careful, be respectful to speak the truth and love. this is not about criticizing for the sake of criticizing and getting your own way. this is having our children

thought to be who god created them to be. it is not about your belief this my belief. it's about what is right and what is wrong. joseph: thank you for that, if you back over to and then back to charlotte. the challenges these parents face, what would you also recommend us to mark i think there are people hungry for resources. anyone can weigh in on this. the resources we need to push back against the madness. the way you oppose bad books is with good books. thinking with good thinking. in your travels into work, bill, what else would you put on the table to make it available to this audience on a website, but what would you put on the table? bill: one of the things i would do to underscore this point about speaking the truth and love his encourage parents not to assume the worst about those

they will be interacting with. one of the things i have found and going to a lot of teacher conferences and sharing with of the -- many of the people teaching in substate departments do want to do a faithful job of presenting for history and civics in an accurate way. yes, there are problems, but don't assume the worst because you might find if you go about things in a respectful manner that you have allies within the system among the faculty and whatnot who can help advance these concerns if you express them in an appropriate manner. that would be one thing i would offer that underscores some of the points earlier. joseph: charlotte, here and ready to way and let me give you another chance. weigh in.

charlotte: bill is absolutely correct. relationships matter. relationships -- i always tell my district i am seeing a culture of fear, even among teachers, and they are afraid to speak up, especially against the administration. build good relationships, close the gap between the home and school. remember, parents, you are the leader. i don't care what they say. some schools make it difficult, their customer service relations is -- leaves a lot to be desired. some parents are intimidated to engage with the schools so i tell the superintendents we value partnership as a priority to learning the key partner is

the parent. when you click parents to decide you become suspect about what you are doing inside that building. joseph: i will have darryle pick that up again, there is a question in the queue. since parents have more to lose in these types of discussions, older people in the community need to help out their taxpayers. have you seen this type of activity? i guess what they are talking about is kids have grown they invest in the community, can we bring them on board in these efforts to challenge what is happening in the schools? anybody have any thoughts about that? charlotte: absolutely. i am a grandmother. i talked to all the grandmothers. it is not about your children it is about the next generation, your community, or state. our strategic plan is each child

is our future. we want to be sure that we equip children with the knowledge and skills for their aspirations that they be challenged and prepared for future success. not only the grandparents, you need to talk to business leaders that have children. definitely going to churches. where values are established. you need to go have a dialogue with the sunday school or whatever. summer camps. the key is the community is responsible and all of us are responsible for the future of our local community and our local state. everybody should be engaged, but, the key is getting everybody the understanding and being on the same page. i tell everybody, keep the bottom line the students. don't bring your personal perspective and, do not bring

the politics in. is this good for our children? joseph: terrific. i want to give darryl a chance to jump in. you mention your grandmother, you're too young to be a grandmother, i thought you were a truth teller. darryle, maybe on this point this networking with people in the community and maybe a bit more on your end, what do you see there? darryle: i would say, my first thought is it has been difficult during covered to network with anybody. we were new to these particular schools this year, that added another layer of difficulty. given the way in which one school approached the ability to be involved, i volunteer for everything. i volunteer for things where there is no volunteer spot.

my son is like oh my gosh, dad, you are always here. why are you here? again, in that way, i have been able to interact with teachers, because it is a catholic school to resources for teachers where two or three hats sometimes. coaches for sure. it is easy to get into a conversation and understand weatherhead is at. by doing so you can understand where the department's head is at or the administration's had is at. trying the approach getting grandparents involved, i shudder to think with my dad would do if he was involved there. i don't know. i would have to leave.

bill: let me jump in to say that people of all ages in addition to fighting on this question surrounding curriculum content and what is taught in the classroom also need to be fighting for school choice. one of the things we have seen in florida that i think has empowered parents finding their local public school resistant to some of their legitimate inquiry and requests for help and address on some of these things is that, when parents can lead and take students to -- leave and take students to another school it becomes -- it makes schools more responsive. we lived in virginia before florida and virginia had less school choice, a more captive audience if you will. i think of our local public schools were less responsive to parents and the public schools we found here in florida.

we care about what every -- everyone is being taught in the classroom in need to focus on the site surrounding civics education and u.s. history. we also need to work at the same time to advance a broader array of options so parents have somewhere to go if they are not satisfied with what the local public school is teaching. joseph: excellent point. or time is wrapping up, i want to give charlotte enderle this chance also. something that hasn't been asked but that you want to communicate, what makes you hopeful, woe you need -- we need to know, the floor is open. go ahead darryle. darryle: for me, what makes me hopeful is that i have learned that there are other parents out there that think the way i do. i have learned that there are resources out there for parents, and i can provide the ones i

know of also. there are resources out there for us to use. i agree that arming ourselves with knowledge is the first step. i can't imagine two years ago having a conversation with any school administrator about critical race theory. i would have had no idea what i was talking about and i would have thought, that doesn't sound right to me but i can't articulate why. i think what makes me hopeful is that i feel like there is a growing tide of opposition to it, at least making itself known. joseph: excellent, charlotte? you give me your last word. charlotte: hope is the expectation of good. i expect good to come out of this, because we have local citizen parents and woke in this

case means it is an inspiration i have gotten about two months ago and i share it everywhere i go. with them overcomes known people -- people. what you don't know can destroy you or cause you to perish. we are having woke citizen parents that will use wisdom, they are getting educated from everywhere and they will be over comers because they will know the evil and how to confront it. joseph: i can't improve on that. thank you so much for that. thank you for this all-star panel, thank you for everything you are doing out there. thank you for the audience for joining us today, if you have more questions you can extend -- send them our way. under the c-span cities tour travels the country exploring the american tory -- story. since 2011 we have been to one than 200 communities.