c-span's american history programs are available to watch online go to c-span.org slash history and type in your topic of interest in the search box thousands of programs looking at the people and places that shaped our nation all available online at cspan dot org slash history. good afternoon. my name is angela sayler and i'm the vice president of the former institute here at the heritage foundation. on behalf of our president k cole's james welcome to our first principal town hall series you know this past year our history and founding principles have been questioned doubted and challenged. others have sought to dangerously distort our american heritage and to fundamentally change it. but during this time of crisis your heritage foundation has produced the first principles town hall webinar series to speak into this moment offering

participants the educational tools to give children an honest understanding of our history and to help them appreciate america's political and cultural achievements. president ronald reagan famously stated that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction and preserving our liberties requires knowledge of our origins. we are delighted that you are joining us for part two of our parent town hall series winning freedom in which dr. joseph leconte 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 jill will be an expert panel to discuss the importance of teaching america's founding principles and civics education and cultivating and informed community of involved parents.

offer the best possible roadmap to a flourishing civil society for all americans chapter joe leconte director of the b can assignment center for american studies for heritage's vulner institute is our leading scholar on john locke? he's also a former associate professor of history at the king's college in new york city and author of the new york times bestseller a hobbit a wardrobe and a great war hal jrr tolkien and cs lewis rediscover faith friendship and heroism. as we welcome dr. joe loconte we encourage you to send questions throughout the event as we will have an opportunity to respond to them later in the program joe over to you. well, thank you angela for that very gracious introduction. thank you all joining us today. we got a terrific program lined up for you before i introduce our all-star panel and they are

an all-star panel. let me just offer some historical perspective. to kind of remind us what what it is that we're fighting to preserve what's under attack what we're fighting to preserve so imagine a group of revolutionaries tired of tyranny hungry for liberty and ready to throw off the chains of political oppression. they're prepared to risk everything for freedom. they want an end to absolute monarchy what they want is a republic a republic a democratic form of government based on we the people so they launched their revolution of a freedom and to the astonishment of the world their successful. they topple the old regime they defeat the king in his army. they write a new constitution. but there's no sign of the dawn of universal bliss because once this revolution gets going the champagne stops flowing something goes terribly wrong with this 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 on the rule of law. we get mob rule and the reign of terror. i'm talking of course about the french revolution which began july 14th 1789 best steel day. that is independence day for the french by the way, you know if you're an american july 14th is really the best day to be dining at a french restaurant because for once the french show wages will be nice to you, but put that aside the french revolution began with a rage against absolute power it ended with a government powerless to govern it ended with a man on horseback a dictator for life. there were two revolutions for freedom in the 18th century. ladies and gentlemen, the one that began in paris. yes, it collapsed into tyranny, but another revolution for

freedom was launched here 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 they're endowed by their creator was certain amount of rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. and that's a secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent. of the governed and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government here. ladies and gentlemen for the first time in history. a political revolution declares the natural equality and natural rights of every human being universal rights that can't be taken away because these rights come from the hand of god was the american revolution a radical event or a conservative event.

well, think about it most of the american colonists. they're from england and in the rebellion against the crown they're claiming their chartered rights as english men. they already are among the freest people in the world. they have the protections of the magna carta, which said that no political leader was above the law. they have the english bill of rights established during the glorious revolution of william and mary they have local self-governing assemblies the town hall. and they also have the writings of the english philosopher john locke john locke virtually all of the ideas some of them pretty radical you have to say that launched the american revolution can be found in locks two treatises of government 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's all there and locks two treatises. well, was the american

revolution radical or conservative? maybe it was both. maybe was both the question now is why did the american revolution succeed? where the french revolution failed? part of the answer can be found here. yes in this book. unlike the french the americans drew strength from the teachings of the bible. think about it. the narrative arc of scripture the story of god rescuing the jews from slavery in egypt and bring them into the freedom of the promised land there in the old testament and then in the new new testament the story of jesus rescuing his people from the slavery of sin and the fear of death for the american revolutionaries the bible. it was the freedom book the freedom book next to the declaration of the constitution the bible might be called america's third founding document and unlike in france the american revolution. it was backed up by the nation's

clergy from all denominations. take the reverend john witherspoon. one of the 56 signers of the declaration. he lost the sun in the revolutionary war. he delivered his assistance to general washington. john adams called him as high a son of liberty as any man in america witherspoon personified this powerful bond between faith and freedom that characterize the american revolution. so the americans, you know, we got a lot going for them. they don't tear down everything that came before like the french. they claim their political inheritance from great britain and its ancient constitution. they have the support of the christian churches. but what about the elephant in the room? 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 of whom of course own slaves. how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty. he wrote among the drivers of

negroes. i think many colonial americans had a guilty conscience about slavery guilty conscience patrick henry confessing his own guilt and hypocrisy said that he looked forward to the time when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable. evil. here's the point the american revolution it creates that opportunity. because the declaration proclaimed for the first time that a nation was coming into existence as the sworn enemy of human slavery the end of human slavery the revolution puts the institution of slavery on notice all over the world. it's days are going to be numbered. until recently friends. we used to know these facts. we used to know them abraham lincoln know them. he said he never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments and bodied in the declaration of independence. yes, lincoln the greater, man. so peter. 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 this revolution produce? well, there was no campaign to brutally silence descent. there was no assault on the christian churches or the teachings of the bible. there was no guillotine. there was not a robe spear among them. their man on horseback was not a napoleon. it was a washington. 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 wife of john adams writing to her son john quincy during the war. abigail is trying to persuade her son to get on a boat across the atlantic.

and join his father in france to help the cause of freedom. john quincy doesn't want to go he'd rather go to harvard to college. his mother has a different sense of his obligations. here's a piece of what she wrote him. these are the times in which a genius would wish to live. it is not in the still calm of life that great characters are formed the habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulty. she says contending with difficulties great necessities call out great virtues and form the character of the hero and the statesman. now i put the question. do you ladies and gentlemen if you got a letter like that from your mother? what would you do? you get on the boat, you know you would you get on that boat the character of the hero and the statesman is forged in the fires of a great contest of great difficulty in the crucible of war and war has come upon them. with a firm alliance on the

protection of divine providence. we mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortunes. and our sacred honor ladies and gentlemen the greatest political revolution for human freedom in the history of the world. has begun well, thanks for listening to that. let me introduce our all-star panel. someday. i'll get to be on an all-star panel. let me invite the panel to join us now online. i at least get the moderate them so join us now online panel if you would. and i'll introduce him briefly. you've got the fuller by biographies are available. and we go everybody's online. they're great bill mattox william mattox director of the j stanley marshall center for educational up options at the james madison institute of bill works with policymakers educators parents to promote reforms to make it possible for all k-12 students to obtain a high quality education. i love that idea charlotte boyer vice president for the ohio state board of education. she and her husband arthur

launch the the excel after school program that engages parents to help elementary students improve school achievement and attendance if that's not doing the lord's work. i don't know. what is daryl owens graduate from grove city work for 15 years in the healthcare industry. darryl and his wife dawn our parents to rylan age. nine cafe age 13 based in minneapolis. welcome all to this table. i've got a few questions here coming in. let me just throw it open to daryl. first but anybody really can answer this kind of opening question as well daryl. what brought you to the point? this is a question. i i always like to ask people who get involved in in great causes like this. what brought you to point that you decided to speak with the heads of the school where your children attend? and what was the response then from those from those officials? what what dragged you into this

into this discussion gerald if you could sure. we we moved our kids from a one school a different school to two catholic schools at the beginning of this school year, so that would have been august of 2020. and grateful that they are in school all day every day. i'll be at with masks and all that stuff, but they're there we moved them because we started to be concerned about things that were being taught and not being taught at the prior institution. but i have to say with respect to how history was or wasn't being taught the prior institution dawn and i really felt like we could deal with that at home. we could supplement and correct certain information at home and we were doing that and we i i

think we were pretty successful. however, when the issues of race and critical race theory started to creep in to the kind of the everyday discussions in the classrooms into chapel things like that. we decided you know the writings on the wall here. we're going to move our kids to different schools and it was certainly the right move for us. however, i was also encouraged over and over and over again to not assume that all as well in your child's classroom and all is well with the curriculum at your children's school. so um and i have to say i was i was under that assumption. um, i then decided one day probably after reading something

or or listening to a lecture or something like that to reach out to the heads of school to say. hey, what is how are you handling all of this information and all the push up to the integrate the 16th project etc into the curriculum. and i got two different answers. um one from from one head of school. thank you for your call. this the best call i've gotten all day because i did give them my opinion of those things. it's best call i've gotten all day. thank you so much. don't worry about as long as i'm ahead of school. that's never going to happen here. the other one i'm that was was very interested in getting information very willing to consider all points of view and perspectives. so that gave me cause for concern and i have maintained contact with that particular head of school. i do that information from time to time. but yeah, it's our concern because our children are you know, they need to know who they are beyond the color of their

skin. so yes. yes. thank you for that darryl. that's terrific. maybe charlotte over you a similar of a slight different question your vice president over there the ohio state board of education. what have you learned? what what would you say just as we're talking to this audience here? we've got who've tuned in the parents, especially what you've learned has really encouraged you about the challenges that that are out there in your own role in the capacity to make a difference, charlotte. well, i just got off a state school board meeting on tuesday and i made under new business constable appeal that everyone on our 19-member board is in one of the largest in the nation need to learn out for themselves. what critical race theory is about. i have been receiving letters from parents all over the state of ohio their concerned about what their children are being taught. some of their local boards are engaging some are not so the question becomes parents.

hold us accountable. oh your local school board accountable. we are a local control states. so a lot of the education determination happens in the local district. but we are the resource and the code set up the model curriculum on our website. so say for example 1619 project showed up on our website. the perception is that we support this which we were clueless about. we don't even know how to got on the website so that began to make us as policymakers well for the school board to find out why the reason i care is because ideals have consequences.

and inconsistent ideals means inconsistent people and the parent is the first foundational support for education. and parents i've discovered. i have 44 districts in my territory besides across the state. i find out a lot of more clueless until it is too late. wow. wow. wow, charlotte. i'm gonna come back yet. i'm packed that a little bit but i'm gonna give bill a chance here bill. where pretty good about i think good in our crowd about identifying what the threats are the problems out there whether it's a 16-19 project critical race theory etc. what else more is needed though in terms of the response? of concerned parents who really want an accurate portrayal of our history something that doesn't divide us. it's true true to our history, but doesn't divide us what else what more do we need here bill? yeah, i i think you're right. it's obvious that we need to be pushing back against destructive narratives that distort the past and that contribute to cultural division today, but i don't think that a critique alone is enough. i really do believe that we need to be offering in many ways of

counter narrative true narrative one that in my mind embraces the idea of constructive patriotism and and in that i think you can see i oftentimes the arm those that are advancing the narratives that are ascendant today that are causing so much trouble in division often like to kind of portray the the debate as um, we're here to give you an honest view of history as opposed to a sugar-coated view that you would get traditionally or from the other side or whatever. it may be and i think that what we need to do is to 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 those in the context of embracing our

founding principles and overarching values and ideals is important and in my mind two of the best examples of this or frederick douglass and martin luther king jr. if you look at frederick douglas, you know what to the slave is the fourth of july speak. it is a blistering critique of slavery, but it is also a surprisingly strong and compelling defense of our nation's ideals and a basically an exhortation to his audience to say hey, we all embrace these ideals. let's do a better job of living up to them and you can see the same thing with martin luther king and his i have a dream speech where he yes the declaration as a promissory note that needs to be redeemed in neither 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 that we all share and that sort of constructive view of patriotism rather than one that is critical that seeks to tear down that seeks to divide is i think a narrative that americans will embrace. i think it is honest and true and it gives a complete picture to our children of how they should see this country. yet thank you for that bill. that's just terrific and i just say at the shameless self-promotion here at the heritage foundation other people are working on this as well, of course, but a heritage we are trying to produce that kind of material a little mini film series. we're working on right now to make available to parents and others, but i want to take it back to show and then over the daryl again and charlotte take this question wherever you like i don't imagine there you being on the ohio state board of education that you've got. some of people there colleagues who don't agree with you who don't agree with your positions and maybe a little astounded

that you're taking the positions that you're taking. i'm just kind of curious to know how you interact with them and where where you've been able to make some progress in headway, what kind of arguments and discussions you have that seem to maybe make the lights go on the scales fall from the eyes of damascus moment something you tell us. well, first of all, i speak the truth in love and one of the things i demand of all my colleagues on the board is that you know for yourself always tell my children. they're resized to a store your side my side and then the truth and we need to ascertain. what is the truth in in this case parents need a simple message even in critical race theory one of the tenants is knowledge is socially constructed. that's not true. so they want 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 educating the children.

so 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 so they need to be educated and i don't know how you do that in a couple of pages guys, but we need a message to push back. and if they school board i'm willing to risk all there are people there for when i the legal term is seven, richmond. but if you're truly there for your students if you're truly there for the future of your state or the future of this country you have to do what is right at any cost. yes, you know charlotte, it's making me think what you just said. maybe we need a little more collaboration with you and in crafting that kind of response based on your own experience and what's effective kind of crafting that two page three page document. that's maybe some of the think about down the road here.

not you. oh, i'm sorry, and that's so we just had our state associations of president of the school board be a victim of cancel culture. he resigned he had just been appointed or elected. yes and of the ohio school board association, but he wanted to do the right thing and he's part of a team. i'm 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've got to know what's going on words have consequences. yes our back. we just considered a resolution relating to funding the overall arching preamble said public schools being foundational to democracy. i saw three red flags immediately because part of the critical race series that either

your rep democracy, but it's not about republic. we are a republican. government for up and by the people and the people are the parents. yes, that's an excellent point charlotte. i don't think we can emphasize it enough that the actual power that people have that ordinary parents have in their hands. it reminds me of that moment in in poland and solidarity movement when john paul the second visited poland a catholic pope visiting a catholic communist country and they're turning out by the millions to see him to hear him speak and one of the people in the crowd later said we realize finally realize that we the people we have the power we have the power where the majority in there the minority the communist leaders wonder if we need that awakening somehow about the power we have glad charlie. what respond yeah doctor one in the words. we got to be very careful of

this equity. it's part of the um what i call cultural critical race theory framework when you talk about equity inclusion. yeah versus equality. yeah, yeah, i think we'll come back to that point before we're done. it's a great one over to you darryl. you know, you're you're a parent. you've got you got a couple of kids in school one of the questions. i'm sure some parents are wondering is how do you talk to your to your children about this and you know, not a confusing them but help them to understand what's coming in what can be trusted what can't be trust. it's got to be a difficult negotiation daryl. can it talk to us about that? i'm very honest. we're very honest with them. my mother was very honest with me when i was growing up about race and about. anything she could think of and many other issues to me sometimes too honest. i would say. um, but i appreciate that now

being an adult and the father of two children, so we are very honest with them we all we we emphasize with them that everyone doesn't think the way we do in fact where we live. most people don't at least not that we encounter. so, you know, it's a ms. mcguire's point encouraging them to speak the truth and love speak there of say their opinion in a respectful way. so we encourage them to do that. we also tell them if you have questions about what somebody says at school what a teacher says at school, please please ask us and i we ask them so we are probably we are pro. we are probing parents. we are constantly asking them. you know, what did you learn in school today? oh, well, what did you know? what did joey say about such and such? hey, what did they say about the protests that are happening? so we we talked to them about what what the current issues are and we we really don't sugarcoat anything.

both of them are mature in that way. they can handle it. they don't get it. they'll they'll ask us and if they don't want to hear any more they tell us yeah. yeah. yeah dad. i got it. i would say honesty. and our friend that's a that's a terrific terrific strategy. it seems to me honestly bill back over to you here. i the james madison. institute you have developed some supplemental civic education programs. do you want to tell us a little bit about that? i think it's gonna be probably of interest to a lot of the people in our audience right now. i don't don't want to miss that. go ahead. yeah, so we do a supplemental curriculum that we release every september called celebrate freedom that goes out during celebrate freedom week and unpacks that passage that you cited earlier from the declaration of independence giving students kind of an understanding of that and then throughout the year do a number of other programs and activities often in conjunction with other

institutions and programs like boise state girls state what not providing speakers and the like but one of my favorite things that we do is a naturalization ceremony field trip that we do with students every year where we take them to go and see a naturalization ceremony to interact with some of the new citizens. and before they go we have them take the quiz that is required of those who want to become naturalized citizens just to see what the questions are and whether or not they'd be able to answer them and almost without fail whenever we do this the students come away with a profound respect for these individuals who have cared enough about becoming americans to go through the process to do it, you know legally to answer the questions and all the rest that many of them some in some ways kind of recognize their own i guess in gratitude. maybe the right word. i don't know just how how many

things that we kind of take for granted and don't even pause to reflect on how blessed we are as americans to enjoy many of the privileges that we do is citizens of this country one of the things that going forward. we're we're planning to do that. i think it's gonna be really interesting is to ask students whether they think they're ought to be some sort of right of passage. um, like you see in religious groups, sometimes the confirmation process or the bar mitzvah process where people who are born into a community are expected to the ideas and values of community in some way and i'm not advocating for that when it comes to us citizenship, but there is a sense in which i think a lot of young people never really stop pause reflect and and in some way go about the process of embracing what it distinctly means to be american and and and and the ideals that

are represented by our country. yes. thank you bill for that. that's terrific stuff and i want to get more on on resources that are out there but charlotte back to you here for a minute. it seems to many of us that the radical stuff that has been going on at the college level. you know, you see berkeley back in the 60s and early 70s. they in berkeley. hey, hey, ho ho western civ has got to go right and so just teaching western civilization american history. it's become so problematic at the college level, but now we're seeing this kind of radicalism really for the first time in public education charlotte, and i guess i want to give you another opportunity on practice a little bit more about what what our audience our parents need to be aware of that the big the big the warning signs things are really be careful of and then strategically what they can do just unpack it a little bit more first what you give your experience over there? well, i think most points is

doing the right thing. the thing parents have to do is active listening. they've got to listen to understand and validate what's going on in the school. you've got to keep your children. i tell my daughter keep your children talking because that would be an indication if you don't know what may be going on especially words like equity or democracy or the intersectionality, you know, there are key bus words that parents listen for we had a woman at the board meeting this past tuesday. she gave such a compelling story how her daughter was referred by a school psychologist to a gender clinic without her knowledge. and what happened? and so we got to be careful even in the current administration's desired to teach civic activism. so to speak that what we're

seeing on college campuses does not start happening in pre-k through 12th grade as a matter of fact. you know, there's telling students in some districts. in ohio pick a topic you stand for write your senator we've had walkouts. and in some cases the parents don't know about it when the schools teaching conflicts with your family values. that's a big black. yeah, that's terrific. we got a question that you hear kind of on this point. what steps do you recommend taking to find out if critical race theory and the 1619 project have been adopted? what steps do you recommend taking to find out them adopted and have become part of the school curriculum? and i'll throw it open anybody over there. well, i tell all my parents first of all. the bridge to gap between the home in the school know your children's teacher. i call them parents of purpose.

ask questions if nothing else asks the school principal every school has a curriculum director what's being taught? you know, you've got to ask questions in such a way you get them talking so to speak and yeah keep notes and then i also encourage them to talk to the superintendent and then i asked them to share with other parents. they need to have dialogue in their communities because parents need to be educated they need to be activated and mobilized to go to all their elected local school boards accountable. darryl let's pick up that point. thank you for that charlotte that let's pick up that point about working together maybe with other parents because i can eat imagine if you're a parent out there you can sometimes think i'm in this thing on my own who else feels the same way when in fact they may well be part of a silent majority what's been experience there darrell and working. with other parents um, well i

would say that there are that many parents are afraid. okay, they don't want to speak up. they don't want to cause controversy not because necessarily it will reflect on them. but because of the impact of potentially have on their children and how their children may be treated by others or other people's parents or whatever. so i volunteer a lot at my son's school, especially unfortunately at my daughter's school parents are i always call it locked out because of covid there are no volunteer opportunities there. however, i do stand outside. so but at my son school, i volunteer we serve lunch sometimes until you get to talk to other parents there and i would say engaging them on a very personal practical level. has been the best for me, so i'm not calling parents and saying hey, you know, i called the head of school and i told them such

and such. no, i want to rub shoulders with them rub elbows with them in a setting where we're you know, pulling in the same direction serving lunch or whatever and those topics come up. just like a crucible. i'm sorry. but yeah, i i think being present in school as much as you possibly can especially in these times is so important because those hallway conversations, you know, you're gonna you're gonna hear what's coming up then and you can deal with it. yeah communicating your investment in the school for the sake of your kids and and the kids around them. i mean i don't have children, but i can easily imagine not even not being a parent i can easily imagine how it it would be a anxious thing for a parent to approach a high school teacher or administrator. the fear would be now my students going to be marked out as the child of the troublemaker. and then maybe there's a different attitude toward the child just unconsciously you

could you could imagine that anxiety. you're nodding over there darrell. i mean, what what do you think about that? i so i do have a a parent / colleague at my daughter's school where that has happened to her. so hurt her daughter is the parent of the troublemaker. there is what it is. we you do it anyway, because that's the right thing to do you do. have to be careful though. i would say to again be respectful to speak the truth in love. this is not about criticizing for the sake of criticizing and getting your own way. you know, this is for this of how having our children grow up to be who god created them to be. it's not about. believe versus my belief. it's about our belief. and about what's right and that's wrong. yes, thank you for that darryl and maybe back over the bill and then over the charlotte bill on this point and unpacking in a

bit more the challenges this these that these parents face. what would you also recommend? i think they're probably people really hungry for resources and anybody can weigh in on this the resources that we need to push back against the madness the way you oppose bad books is with good books right thinking with good thinking. and and your travels and in your work bill, what else would you maybe put on the table? we can certainly bring that later on and make it available to this audience on our website and all but what would you put on the table? so one of the things that i would do just to underscore this point about speaking the truth in love is to encourage parents not to assume the worst about those that they will be interacting with because one of the things that i have found in going to a lot of teacher conferences and sharing with them the resources that we have available is that many of the people that are teaching in social studies departments are actually sympathetic to the concerns that we have do want to

do a faithful job of presenting our history and civics in an accurate way, so don't assume the worst. yes. there are problems don't you know don't be naive but also don't assume the worst about people 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, so that would be one thing that i would offer that underscore some of the points. excellent charlotte. you'll get right away in there on this or other points. let me give you a chance. i got some other questions, but go ahead way in. well a bill absolutely correct relationships matter. and relationships. i always even tell my districts. i'm seeing a culture fear even among teachers who are caring and sympathetic to the parents and they are even afraid to speak up especially if those

against administration. so bill good relationships bridge the gap between the home and the school remember parents you are the leader. you are the leader. i don't care what they say and some schools make it very difficult their customer service. relations is leaves a lot to be desired as a matter of fact some parents are even intimidated. to even engage with the schools. yes, so i'd even call the superintendents, you know parents we value partnership is a priority to learning and the key partner is the parent and when you start kicking parents to the side, then you become suspect. about what you're doing inside that building. yes. yes, and i'm gonna have darrell maybe picked it up again, too, but there's a question in the queue which relates to this

since parents have more to lose in these types of discussions older people in the community need to help out their taxes, too. have you seen this type of activity? and i guess what they're talking about is people whose kids are grown, but they're there they're still invest in the community. can we bring them on board in these efforts to challenge what's happening in the schools? that's that that's pretty rotten. anybody have any thoughts stories about that? oh, i i'm absolutely because i'm a grandmother. so i talked about grandmothers, you know, it's not about your children. it's about the next generation. it's about your community is about you state and our strategic plan branding is each child our future. and we want to be sure that we equip children with the knowledge and skills for their aspirations that they be challenged and prepare for future success. so not only the grandparents you need to talk to business leaders

that have children. you need to talk. oh and definitely i'm going to churches you know, where you start established. you need to go to have a dialogue with the sunday school or whatever summer camps. the t is the community is responsible and all of us are responsible for the future of our local community and our local state. so yes, everybody should be engaged but the key is getting everybody the understanding and being on the same page and you know keep and i tell everybody to keep the bottom line the students don't bring your personal perspective and don't bring the politics in is this good for our children? yes. terrific charlotte. i want to give darryl a chance to jump in here. but you said you mentioned that your grandmother you're too young to be a grandmother. i thought you were truth teller. come on now. yeah. thank you for that there.

but daryl maybe on this point this this networking with people in the community and maybe just a little bit more on your end and what you've seen there potentially. you've seen there. go ahead. i would say well first of all, my first thought is it's been difficult during covid to network with anybody and we were new to these particular schools this year so that, you know added another layer of difficulty but given the way in which at least one school approached the ability to be involved again, i i volunteer for everything i volunteer for things where there is no volunteer spot. um, my son is like, oh my gosh, dad. you're always here. why are you here? i i so i think again it is in that way. i've been able to interact with teachers because it's you know, it's catholic school limited

resources. so teachers where two three hats sometimes coaches. for sure. it's easy to get into a conversation and understand kind of where their head is at and by doing so you can kind of understand. all right where that particular department's head is that yes where the administrations head is that i have not yet though, and i think it's a great idea tried the approach of you know, getting getting grandparents involved. i shudder to think what my what my dad would do if he was involved there might i don't know i'd have to leave let me go you and that's just to say that um 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 because one of the things that we've seen in florida that i

think has greatly empowered parents who are finding their local public school resist. some of their legitimate inquiry and requests for help in and address on some of these things is that when parents can leave when they can take students to another school. it usually means that that schools become more responsive to them and i've seen this from our own experience we live for a time in virginia before moving to florida and virginia had far less school choice a more captive audience if you will and i think our local public schools were far less responsive to parents than the public schools that we found here in florida. so while obviously we care about what everyone is being taught in the classroom and need to be focused on this fight surrounding civics education and us history. we also need to be working at the same time to advance a broad array of options. so that parents have somewhere to go if they aren't satisfied

with what the local public schools teaching. excellent point a bill then our time is wrapping up here if i want to give charlotte and daryl just a chance as well something that i that hasn't been asked that you really want to communicate here for this audience about this issue. what makes you hopeful what we need to know the floor is open daryl take it then we'll wrap up with charlotte. go ahead darryl. um for me, i think what makes hopeful is that i have learned that there are other parents out there that think the way i do. um, i have learned that there are there are resources out there for parents and i can i can provide the ones that i know of as well. there are resources out there for us to use because i agree that arming ourselves with knowledge is kind of 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 quite sound right to me, but i can't really articulate why. um, so i think that what makes me hopeful is that i honestly feel like there's a growing a tide of opposition to it at least making itself known. excellent. excellent charlotte. give me the last word. the last word is hope is the expectation of good and i expect good to come out of this because we have woke citizen parents and walking this case only means and this is an inspiration of i've gotten about two months ago, and i've been sharing it everywhere i go is wisdom. overcomes known evil what you don't know can destroy you or cause you to paris so we are

having woke citizen parents that are they would they will use wisdom. they're getting i mean, they're getting educated from everywhere and they will be overcomers because they go know the evil and how to confront it. wow. wow, i can't improve on that charlotte. thank you so much for that. thank you for this all-star panel and the great investment of time. thank you for everything you're doing out there. thank you for the audience for joining us today. it's been great to have you've got more questions. you can extend them our way. weekends on c-span 2 are an intellectual feast every saturday american history tv documents america's story and on sundays book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors funding for c-span 2 comes from these television companies and more including midco.

midco along with these television companies support c-span 2 as a public service follow american history tv on twitter facebook and youtube for schedule updates to learn about what happened this day in history watch videos and learn more about the people and events that have shaped the american story find us at c-span history. a look now at history in the news last month president biden signed the juneteenth national independence day act making it the 11th annual federal holiday and the first one established since the creation of martin luther king jr. day in 1983 juneteenth celebrated on june 19th commemorates the end of slavery in the united states. here's a look at the white house commemoration and signing.