to begin our substantive program and that is going to be a program today on sparking we're all here to begin a substantive program and that is going to be a program today on sparking civic engagement in history education. and last night at the

conclusion of the program i said that education is sonia commentary that we all share and it's critical to the future of our country. and we are honored that we have as the moderator of this group dr. kathleen warren, we know is the extraordinary leader of national history day. and she has been on our board for many, many years. former brought our board of directors of the white house historical association. joining her onstage are doctor david bob, president of the bill of rights institute, tim bailey, director of curriculum development and instructional design for the gilder lehrman institute of american history, and wendy may drier, board chairman of i-six. please join me in welcoming our first panel of the 2022 presidential [inaudible] summit. >> [applause] >> good morning

everyone. i'm kathy coren, executive director of natural history day national history day and it's a privilege to be the moderator of this panel and this session this morning as stewart no due to education is absolutely critical and given the times we're living in history education is especially important. for those of you are not history with natural history national history day hits a quick version of it we. sponsor a student program for six through 12 great years all across this country and also internationally, in fact, in which we ask kids to truth topics in history, any topic they like, and they can go out and conduct extensive research into archives and libraries and museums. and i know that many of you

have been contacted by our students year after year looking for primary resources to go along with their studies of the secondary material. and so, it's a real rigorous and a very active study of the past. it's not your memorized names and dates kind of program. the students, after they've done their research, they then present their findings and create in creative formats we. also have to relate their topic to an annual theme and i think where we can clear avoid when we set our themes up. we set them years in advance and so the first year of the pandemic the theme was breaking barriers in history and, this is team's debate and diplomas in history, so, you know, timing is everything, i guess. so once they do all of that they had then present their findings at different competitions winners moving up the level until, our national event every year which sadly for the last three years has been virtual but we are going

to be back on site next year come hell or hard water, pardon the language allowed. >> we also do teacher, training professional activities to help social studies teachers become better history teachers. and so we do struck instructional materials and some institute said that kind of things, which is very critical, because many of the social studies teachers, many do not better or mine in history in college but they are certified to teach it so we have to help them with training and resources. so, that is history day in a nutshell. the title of our [inaudible] this morning is spiking history in [inaudible] in history education. so that is very timely given the climate reliving in when timing is of a gauge occasions, have been engagement, civic

discourse in particular, is divided and a very polarized. it's a time when interpretations of history and approaches to history education are being scrutinized. i think that i would guess that most of us here, hopefully all of us here, would you agree that history education is absolutely critical to building a citizenship, for civic engagement and. the best way to do that is through active study of the past with students. and many studies over the decades have noted that the students who study history in an active rigorous way they are more likely to volunteer, they're more likely to engage in the communities, they're more likely to vote and vote thoughtfully, and build history education, history education builds empathy. so it's again, critical, [inaudible] but history and social studies

teachers are dealing with internal and external influences on classroom practice and curricula so the big question is how can we help our teachers improve the way the teacher and engage their students in early, vigorous and meaningful study of the past? so that's what we're going to talk about this morning a little bit and i'm going to turn to my colleagues to hear their advice so i'm going to start with wendy. wendy may drier may-dreyer, again, is so chair of. so wendy, what does specific engagement mean? what does that look like you? >> [laughs] . hello, my name is, as she said, wendy may-dreyer, and i'm the board chair -- for disclosure, i mean actually a recovering attorney. [laughs] he retired these recently to go work full-time for icivics because i felt it was like such an important mission, given

what's happening in our country and society today. civic engagement is a big topic -- and just to give you a big background, given [inaudible] on our organizations, icivics it's the largest civic education rivalries provider in the country. which were started by giants just sandra day o'connor when she retired from the bench. and even though that seems to most of us like quite a long time ago, she was already sensing what was to come. it was first [inaudible] the doj should, area and it certainly trickle down to our branches of government in terms of the lack of knowledge as well as the distrust of our key institutions. and she wanted to do something about it. it's so she began researching and ultimately [laughs] and ironically [laughs] , he retired supreme court justice she never thought [inaudible] in video games for teaching civic education. not personally herself, obviously, but she retained

some of the best in the country so that we have, you know, we have some of the highest -- i think when you're we ranked third after world of war video games. i mean, which was pretty impressive for an educational, you know, it acclaim site. we do very games, but then lesson plans and professional development to back those of our teachers and we provide them as free resources to teachers because we all know they do not have, especially social studies, did not have the budget to be able to afford quality resources. and so, that's what we do. at the heart of our organization, we are actually now a leader, also, in a, i think probably the largest bipartisan coalition that works in this arena, nationally, to help advocate for change across the country, as well as civic programs being allowed to stay in school, and not just allowed to stay, which is sad to say,

but also prioritized. says that's in a very, very brief nutshell what we do. so civic in gauging it is at the heart of our mission. our mission is to create in the next generation responsible, informed, engaged citizenry i would say to fully define civic engagement you have to know it is not just about the action part of that word. it is not just about going out and getting involved. there is precursors to that. that is fundamental to our mission. you must have, students must have skills they must have the right attitudes before they can become responsible, informed, and engage citizens. otherwise they are just being told to go -- their ponds and someone else's game. they don't really know what they are doing. they don't know how to take part in their government. that has been the biggest problem we have found in

schools. so many of the states quit having any requirement for government, civics, it's called different thing in different states. to teach our students the foundations of our government, much less what to do with that. how to apply in their daily lives. we start by teaching history, you must know the facts ... he must know where the country has come from, where it is headed. what's the institutions are the importance of engaging in those. that leads into the next key factor, which is attitude. we start k-12 at a very early age you can start convincing students that they need to care about our government, the system of government and our way of life in america. you know, probably a lot of you have seen this. some of the more recent statistics are, wow, scary!

in terms of where millennials and the generations after that, our with respect to our foundations of government in america. i think the latest one i saw was 44% of millennials think the constitution is irrelevant. that's almost half of millennials think the constitution is irrelevant. let that soak in for a second. i think 35% had no faith in our american democracy. you have to start with the attitude. we have a whole generation that just doesn't see any reason to support the american government. they don't believe in the experiment of american democracy. we have to begin by creating those appropriate attitudes if we want them to be engaged citizens. the last piece of that is the skills piece. you have got to teach them how.

you need to teach them the art of civil discourse. not just civics discourse but civil discourse. you have to teach them primary document analysis. you have to teach the media literacy. you have to teach them advocacy. all of these skills are necessary. then at the final stage they can be taught, what do i do with all of this? i have the knowledge, the skills, the appropriate attitudes, how do i get involved in my local communities? not just government but local community state, government, federal government. how do i participate and feel responsible to have a need to do that. >> here here. >> no small task! >> no, no small task. especially given the fact that we have struggled for decades to keep history, or put history back into its rightful place in the curriculum. s.t.e.m. education, while

important, has kicked history to the backburner. we have been struggling with that along for decades. now we are dealing with the attack on historical truth, history education, what's teachers can and cannot teach. so on, it is sort of a double whammy. in terms of the challenge that we have to teach history, teach more history, and an effort to encourage civic engagement. >> honestly, as an aside when our organization icivics started the biggest challenge was just getting resources. well maybe referred to as the black sheep of the education world. stem was getting all of the researches, social studies was getting. none now look what we are taking on, all of our organizations taking on, movements to not even teach history or civics in schools, at all. >> it's a serious, serious problem. hopefully, together, we can

work towards finding solutions. so we can attack these problems. i'm going to turn to david. david bob is president of the bill of rights institute. why don't you tell us a little bit about what the institute is doing. your thoughts on history and civic engagement. >> thank you for the opportunity to join you at the presidential site cement. i'm grateful for the work that you will do. i look forward to talking about ways that civics can be even a greater part of the outreach work that you do in your communities across this country. if history teaches us about the past, i think civics is a way to chart or future. one of the big challenges that we have in reaching young people's when they are thinking about history or they are thinking about civics, what's often come to mind is -- they don't see it is something they should care about.

the question of why questions the most. i think we have to become better as a people supporting a clear, well-defined answer to why study history. why be safe ugly engaged? you know, fast forward to a moment five years in time. think about what we are as a people, july 4th 2026. on that day the united states of america will turn 250 years old. what will we do looking forward? how do we understand our past? we will have an occasion in this conference to reflect on that more. but, what does that mean to a 16-year-old? we hear and many who are watching on c-span might be constitution nerds, or history buffs, a 16 year old doesn't wake up with constitution day circled on his or her calendar. [laughs] but we have to do, i think, it's show them that there is a

relevance. one of the things that i am truly concerned about is, what you talked about kathy, is history can come into play. it is vital i believe that we as a nation support social studies educators in the immensely difficult work they are doing. it is a reason my organization, bill of rights institute, started over two decades ago started by an educator who had a vision that teachers wanted resources! brought them into community and fellowship with very often not the official thing they were handed by their district or their states. they wanted professional learning that brings them into community in fellowship with fellow educators who knew the very real challenges that they faced. let me give you one piece of data that was done through a nationwide survey just before the pandemic in october of 2019. the organization, asked administrators all across the country, how much do you think that your teachers in social

studies and middle school and high school use the official proved by the taxpayer. the survey said one out of two days. the teachers were asked and they said one out of five days. the big gap there shows that our teachers across this country are entrepreneurial. they are curators of contents. they pull together current events. they pull together things that are online, so has to be answer the difficult question of why. so as to be able to talk about things that sometimes, we, think should be verboten. the bill of rights institute are touched on the declaration of independence. we work that we might perfectly realize the promise of equality, so that all people can live in a just and freeze equality. that starts with young people. that starts by showing them their place within that society.

it is providing a library of free resources, now over 4000 documents, all of which are available to teachers. professional learning programs that are held across the country. and one of those resources we were able to partner with two organizations represented here. the john f. kennedy presidential library museum, also the reagan library and museum. we integrated lesson plans from those two organization into a comprehensive history of the united states. we find that when you have point, counter point and you ask students to weigh in on controversial things, they are capable of doing so. i think what we need as a nation is to be able to say, we support educators in discussing divisive concepts. there is no way to shy away from things that divide us. as i said last night, the most important word in the constitution is we. we have to go through those things! it is not the constitution of managing disagreement. it is not our purpose as a

people to illuminate disagreement. it is to come to a place where we can go about our conversations, working together to find that we, to manage the profound and important differences that exist in a nation of nearly 3 million people. >> indeed. i would add, to david what you said about young people, how they are so very capable and eager to learn, and to attack big issues. i don't think that we give them enough credit. you know, adults who are making decisions about what's should or shouldn't be learned in a history classroom just aren't giving kids enough credit. i know my experience with national history students, first of all they are not jaded by years of experience. they would come out this fresh they are looking at the primary materials. they are allowing the historical characters to speak for themselves. then they are interpreting the

information, drawing conclusions about the why. answering what we always thought of students of natural history, so what? why should we care about that? there are plenty of reasons that we should. students are wonderful about thinking about those kinds of things. studying the past, they find their heroes in the past. they find ordinary people can do extraordinary things. it encourages them, it builds empathy. we need to allow our teachers to do more of that with their students. i am going to turn to tim bailey. tim is -- director of design at the wendy may-dreyer institute of national history day. how does history play a role in encouraging civic engagement but also in sustaining democracy? thank you everyone it is a pleasure to be here thank you for inviting the organization to speak.

i think that history education and the study of history is, you cannot separate that from civic education. they are one and the same. to separate them is not official. i know it is done in school systems, a lot, but it is kind of a false way to educate students. not recognizing the importance of history, how that is where civics evolved from. the gilder lehrman institute was founded 27 years ago by richard gilder and louis lehrman, two friends who were entrepreneurs who had a love of american history. over a number of years built the largest private collection of american history private documents in the world at that time. then they decided, what are we gonna do with this? we can use this to give back to

our alma mater. we can make a museum. but they really wanted to do was get it into the hands of students, into the hands of children. for exactly this purpose, to teach them a love and appreciation of american history. how a evolution of a people, how that had happened. so they created the institute. we now have over 80,000 documents in our collection. that is the foundation of the institute in the work that we do. to answer your question, that study of american history, by teaching history through the word is the people that made history. not through much uttar pradesh in but teaching students how to study history, in order to gain their own understanding. their own appreciation of their civic role.

i think that once you get students thinking about where did we come from? equals who we are. we created a poster out of to vote documents in our collection which i think is really compelling. it speaks to what has been set up here but also what was emphasized last night. one of the pieces on the poster is an draft of the constitution, during the constitutional convention. one thing to get across to students, studying history, we talk about this being dead boring. absolutely! the other thing is, this has been carved in stone, right? this is always how it was going to happen. it sense of at the time history was happening no one knew what was going to happen. that is lost on students. that is something you really need to instill on them. one of the copies of the draft of the constitution says we the

states of and it lists the states, and then it goes into the articles. we have that on one side of the poster. on the outside of the poster it says we, the people of the united states. the shift in american thinking, that ideological shift that happened from thinking of the articles of confederation, each separate state has its own little country, to we the people as one nation, is huge! that, that goes throughout our history. how the country has evolved, how things -- how we think about ourselves when we reflect upon ourselves as a nation in as a people, as the role of individuals. that is something that you can instill and students through the study of the words, of the events of our past. leading them to that specific role. it was already said, right? you talked about that.

the foundational aspect of civics's history. that is really the role that we see. we have a program that we developed called teaching civics through history. it has three components to. the first component is laying down that foundation. let's say the topic is, free speech. we will go through the evolution of free speech in the country and teach the students that. the second piece is current events. we wrap the current events into, what is being talked about in free speech. we look at all sides. we look at a website, we partnered with called all signs. we look at right, left, center. students can look at it from different angles. now they were looking at it from a point of view of informed scholarship, instead of opinion. and then we go into, exactly as you alluded to, now we take these passions, these concepts,

this knowledge that you have and go out into the community and make a difference! so, that progression from history to action i think is a absolutely natural one. it is something that we see a great response to. >> in response to you're comment about your poster, it sounds like what you have done is shown, these united states then became the united states, a big difference there. i want to talk a little bit about what role presidential sites can play in helping teachers navigate through this current time. also i would like to talk a little bit about what it means to teach inclusive histories. that is another hot button right now, that we are hearing about.

teaching inclusive histories. teaching histories that make students feel uncomfortable, teachers being told they are not allowed to do that. while, there are some parts of our history that are just uncomfortable! it is the way it was. how do we help our teachers be comfortable teaching the uncomfortable? >> yeah, i mean, i know david and i had a conversation with a reporter from the new york times asking that exact question to us. how are you helping teachers deal with this period in our history, of the current situation that teachers find themselves in? how are your organizations helping with that? i think that one of the things that we did as an organization if, after the george floyd murder, we need to address this in some fashion.

we are an absolutely a political organization. but teachers are going to be asked by students, and they need to have some line helping them. what we did was we put together a program called, how did we get here? i invited a scholar who i have a lot of respect for, jeffries from iowa state. he came in and did a history of race relations, african american experiences, for us. and then we did a pedagogical session for us. how can you bring this into your class and teach? we provided a lesson plan. some approaches for teachers to take back to their classrooms. it was so popular, i intended it originally as a one-off. do this in -- and then it was so popular that now it's a month program. we take on an issue. last month, you want to talk about prescient, right? last month we did one on the history of u.s. foreign policy.

it's a little bit in the news right now. how you know how do you approach these questions? from a historical, you know, point of view. how has that issue evolved in our history? >> twofold, i think one of the issues is what david touched down earlier. we have got to get over this squeamishness we have about discussing conflict in the classroom. our american history is not pretty all the time, right? ook i'm in history as well as today there is a lot of controversy that needs to be discussed. kids are willing to take this on we are nonpartisan organization. our biggest proponent, or position, is there should not be partisanship in the classroom. you can have on us discussions

if they are steeped in fact and knowledge. but i think that is a big issue that we are having right now. we all are from all over the country. i'm from texas, you would have never guessed from my accent, right? we obviously had a big legislative session here, you know? education, legislation relative to what teachers can and can't do in the classroom was a big center of debate. it's going around in all of the states. whether you are in a red state or a blue state, he will have or in the next few terms legislation coming up that we'll talk about that. it is critical. we have fallen very hard here to preserve the ability to teach current events, talking about these things. it's important that there is support for teachers. both from society at large as well as the administration. having these discussions in the

classroom. the second critical, critical, pieced that is professional development for teachers. they don't know how to have the conversations safely. and a manner that doesn't turn political, or caused an uproar in their classroom, or land him on the front page of the newspaper the next day because some parent's map was discussed in the classroom. they don't have that training. they don't get the opportunity to go get the training. once again, social study is the bottom of the heap in the education world. they just are! with limited budgets, administrators, i hear this all the time from creatures, principles do not have the budget for social studies teachers to get substitute teachers in the classrooms and they can go take a day and get trained. even the teachers that want to get to training, even if there is access to the training, they can't get there because they don't have the budget to get out of school and have somebody

take over their classroom. it's a really desperate state of affairs. we have to have accessible professional development. either tim or dave one of you alluded to this earlier. one of our social studies teachers, a good majority of them are coming out of college teaching these subjects, and the last history or government class they had was in high school. maybe they graduated in a state that required they take an entry level college or civics class. but that's just a few states. we are thrusting them into this, it is tough stuff. that's what's circles back to your question about how does presidential sites make a different? in texas we have a big campaign on this legislation. one of the things we were able to accomplish was getting a requirement, call civic

academies, that teachers and administrators, it was important that administrators as well, they get a certain amount of professional development training in social studies. civics, history, government, all of the above. part of that program that is being set up has to include good rich resources for helping teachers navigate these minefields in the classroom. there are a lot of great teachers out there that really want to do the right thing. they really want to teach, well. if we just give them the resources and support to do that. >> they need that to be consistent. not just the one shot now, a quick workshop or a one hour webinar. they need some consistency, helping them not just understand and sift through the materials that they might have. but the training and how to think. one is really important here is

making young people learn to think critically. we need to make sure that teachers do the same. they just haven't had the opportunity. >> they haven't even had a discussion, it just training involved in that. it can get complicated. you'll have kids with hot button opinions coming into a coffee room how to manage those discussions appropriately. in order to give them a model of what's civil discourse and our nation should look like. >> i think that is the key thing. teachers model civil discourse. when they are working, as the lion share of educated to across the country to teach how to think, not what to think. it is incumbent on the rest of us not -- it is particularly critical that the presidential scientists are stepping up. helping to support the educators in this effort. here's just building what martin said by a painting of day in the life if you are showing up in the classroom and you are one of the nation's

200,000 educators at the middle school or high school level, it's january 7th 2021. you know what you're talking to talk about. you are nowhere going to engage students on. but you don't know what you're building principle, superintendent, or the legal counsel for that district might be saying. oftentimes there is subtle but steady pressure to avoid those types of discussions. i think what we need in the united states is a new type of social compound. we need parents to come along educators to support it diverse viewpoint classroom. it roots education in the study of primary source documents. and asked students to engage with these documents. and asked parents that they would come alongside teachers in that effort to really engender the kind of conversation that we are not seeing model very much from washington d.c., or state capitals. if we can embark upon that path, i am confident that the nations

educator up to it. we see it every day! those kind of professional learning programs is the bread and butter of our work at the bill of rights institute. today we have 25,000 educators come through programs one day in length or more. but they are very interested in gaining the tools by which they can lead those discussions, and by which the young people in their charge can emerge capable of having them outside of the classroom. >> i think that the key to all of this is training. getting teachers, all three, all four of us would agree that there is nothing that can substitute having a teacher learned how to do this well. you know, all of our organizations work with that goal in mind. we all train teachers. we have a network of over

30,000 affiliate schools. their teachers who work with us, we communicate through them regularly. we reach out and work with school districts -- many of the historical associations here that we work with, we partner with many of you throughout different programs to train different teachers. this is something that, again, it's not a mystery, right? it's not like we are trying to figure out a puzzle here. we know what to do! it is more of a lack of social initiatives. the country is taking, this is important! this is the direction where we should be moving, this is what we need to be investing in! i think we have a lot of the answers. it is just implementing them. >> well, to mean, to further

answer the question of what can presidential sites do. i will give you some very specific tasks! there is reformation happening in a lot of areas in the country as i alluded to earlier there is a lot of state legislation happening. check into what is going on in your state and find out! here in texas we started a coalition, now that we are through the legislative fe, we are doing the heavy lifting out of the civic academy preparation, as well as provision of state standards, so on and so forth. presidential sites can offer locations for teacher training. right? there is going to be a lot of programs, starting with the state of texas, at local as well as statewide nature, where you can get involved for providing these resources. providing speakers who can come help with professional development training. there is, as tim spoke about,

the general support as well. support the efforts to get behind the education community. so that there is it willingness among society, among your local area the administrators to change civics and history. to have their teachers appropriately trained. there is a lot of boots on the ground type of efforts that the presidential sites can absolutely get involved in, right now. >> we are sort of preaching to the choir, of course. what we need to do, what we all need's engagement on the civic level by writing to contacting calling getting meetings with not just teachers, helping them with materials but with school

administrators and also with members of congress members of state legislature i think we can engage in that sort of civic work, hopefully we can understand policymaking position understanding how critical it is that we continue to teach history and teach it in a meaningful and not let it remain in the way. back burner of the curriculum in our schools. i think it's absolutely critical. >> yeah, i was just going to say that, that backburner thing. that's been, you know, a lot, we've been fighting them for a long, long time. when the common courts state standards came out, one of the things that i had said to, that's our organization is, look after no child left behind and pushed history to the back burner

because it wasn't testing, right? it was english language arts and math and science were being tested. and if it's in not tested subject, the arts and history really took a beating. with no child left behind, we were like, okay, i mean, after that, with common core, maybe it'll change things. then we look, and it's not going to unless. so we had to be sneaky, right? we had to figure out, look, let's make history primary source documents the nonfiction part of the english language requirements, right? [laughter] and that way they'll teach the gettysburg address because it's part of ela. >> you're teaching federal budgeting as part of matt. >> yeah, i mean, that's ridiculous. why should you have to try to be sneaky just to try to teach history? there's something wrong that. but it

was necessary. we developed a program called teaching literacy through history. and i would support approach administrators to get that program in their schools by saying, this will boost your ela scores. not that it's a good idea to teach history. and so you know, those kind of adaptations shouldn't be necessary. but they are. you know, our mission to get students to understand, appreciate and love american history that represents now who you are, we did whatever it took to make that happen. >> here's the good news, though. a lot of our fellow citizens have awakened to the fact that history and civics education is not just a nice to have, but is a necessary thing. and i think we need to build on that. i'm bullish on the opportunity here for parents to come forward and say, from the local level, where overwhelmingly we still want -- surveys indicate -- and

education to be a local matter. what's going to take a renewal of that kind of involvement? recent surveys have shown that 70% of parents are very skeptical and very concerned about intrusions from politicians writing curriculum. i would suggest that weather is at the federal level of the state level that that's going to be going in the wrong direction. and so that kind of bottom-up change that many of your presidential sites, i think, can be an important part of. the other thing that i would say in terms of encouraging the work that you do is, don't shy away from those things that are the most controversial thing. it's a good thing for students and teachers who are part of your educational programming to be able to understand that you want those conversations to happen. and that you are in fact interested in bringing that kind of opposing perspective and allowing them to see how would a conversation rich in content be carried on in their classrooms about the particular president or historical figure that you, that you are looking to focus on? >> yeah. and i think about -- >> i think all interrupt. >> go ahead. >> we have only a few minutes

left for question and answer. anybody have a question or a comment? back there? i think you need to run up here to the microphone. >> oh, okay. >> anyone else who has a question can come up to the microphone. >> good morning, thank you for this panel. so, i think it's fair to surmise that everyone in this room operates in the world of facts and reality and good faith discussions across difference. but outside the walls of this room, something like 20 or 30% of the rest of the country has fallen down the rabbit hole of these bizarre conspiracy theories of qanon and this other nonsense. how are you all thinking about how to address that extremely corrosive development in our nation, which i think is really

without precedent? >> i think it's a great question. i thought about doing even a study and lesson plans on this, because it's a question that our teachers, 60,000 strong across the united states, ask us. and i would suggest that there's something that you might not at first think of. people who fall prey to conspiratorial thinking, and especially we think of the other side, whatever might the other side be, that there is a kind of contempt for that other side i'd wish that they would just vanish, are lacking something that has been the hallmark of a trust that must uphold it constitutional democracy. and that is something that we probably take for granted, civic friendship. people who have fallen into conspiratorial thinking find [inaudible] most of all in that. thinking and what i think we have to do is -- and this is where presidential sites, civic ed organizations, really, the definition of civic engagement, is to reach out to people who

you might otherwise write off. they might hold views that are opprobrious to you. but they are desperately, without being able to articulate themselves, seeking friendship. they are looking for a group to belong to. and they have found it in that very powerful mode of thinking that exists in conspiracy theories. and what i think we have to do is think how can we reach out to people who reach out to people who right now would be so desperate that they would turn to those kind of awful things. because they are bad. how can we rebuild those bonds of trust and civic friendship? >> and i would add, too, that it's very important that we emphasize the importance of evidence. evidence matters. and that's something that we preach to our history students all the time that you know, when you draw your conclusions and your interpretations and present your information, i don't want your opinion. i don't really care about your opinion in this

situation. i want to know your historical argument about your topics's importance in history, based on the evidence, backed up by evidence. and that's -- we've lost that. >> that's one of the specific skills that we talked about. you've got to start this current generation as early as kindergarten, i mean honestly, they have to be taught at an early age, civic skills that will enable them to see [noise] -- excuse me -- the facts that are the basis of what they need to be looking for. the accuracy of information they're being given. otherwise we live in a society where they just live in social echo chambers. >> and preaching, also, multiple perspectives. you can't just look at one side of the event, the individual, what happened in the past. you've got to look at all the angles. and that's very important. >> hello, i'm catherine algor from the massachusetts historical society. and i was reflecting as you are asking, what can your presidential sites do, i was in my own

thinking, what can presidential sites do? what can we do? and i was thinking about my own, you know, organization, which is a fabulous collection and great research program, a very fancy and prestigious, the truth is we have two people on our education committee, and so, i think that one of the things that we struggle with is really the lack of resources. so having to overcome that. and i think it kind of as an interim model i. think you need to figure out what you can do with the staff and resources you have, what you can do really well, get in there, and do it, if it's what people want. and cathy goren has not paid me off. i just have to say, national history day has been a constant. it really requires a specific set of skills, a lot of work. a specific set of skills to historians, we need to be able to research, you look at, evidence create,

arguments -- don't ever use this term, but a thesis statement -- using evidence. and that's something that even though right now we are deep into his [inaudible] contest, my staff is horribly overworked. they would say very proudly that even with his staff off to, we can make an enormous amount of difference, in our case, for about 6000 students a year and growing. >> i think this is the key you hit on, is looking for good partnerships, right? >> right. >> but we recognize that presidential sites, and the organizations running them, have lots of influence. the name carries a lot of respect. that is helpful. and there's lots of great civic education organizations -- you know ours and many others -- getting good resources. it's not that you have to have huge staff, but if he can partner with some of those organizations to add context and insight at times, and also just to help get the word out that the support you lend to that can really help

you sit at the school level as well. >> [inaudible] has value and reach. >> right. and you can multiply your impact just by partnering and looking to, you know, resources. i mean, we have thousands of available resources that are free for educators to use. and so, you may have this much, but then by linking to other organizations and their resources, all of a sudden, you multiply what you can offer through your you, know your organization, and say, look, we have this to offer you. two people in education, you know, that's that's usually the this is why the direction we >> yes. and i think it's important also to stress the fact that what catherine pointed out about having two people in education. that usual, the thing is cutthroat. when you have to cut in your budget,

education. goes and that's a very unfortunate. but as nonprofits and educators we are good at doing a lot with little with, very little, unfortunately. we keep trying to gain more, but there is an awful lot that we can do, and the checkers in the bill. [laughs] [laughter] >> and articulate public you will not we will never cut education at massachusetts historical society. >> there's another thing that many of you already might have been involved in, that's the education for american democracy project. his across ideological endeavors, several years now in the making, that makes a sort of double helix out of civics and history. i've been a partner of it and been proud to see what's emerged just in the understanding, but also now in a network of organization, 100 strong across the united states, that are saying, we need to prioritize the teaching of civics and history, and here are concrete waves, threw a 40-page roadmap, of really very solid questions. how do we answer these questions is the task ahead of us. but inquiry based method, asking questions, getting parents, educators, other stakeholders in the cumulative vault, it's quite educating for american democracy is all about. >> and we have a question here?

>> yeah, so good morning. i'm eric montgomery. i'm with the wilson [inaudible] in augusta, georgia. my question is about the 250th coming up. will there be resources that will allow for us to further what we are talking about this morning, and also how will the presidential sites and other historic sites be able to tap into that? and i'll just end by saying, i remember the bicentennial, and there was, i don't know, i was not, [inaudible] young at the time, but i know how it happened. but there was a lot going there. must of been a lot of resources involved in that in funding. are we going to have that again? >> i know that there is a specific session on -- >> at lunchtime. >> atlanta, right. let me just speak about my organization. so [inaudible] we just recently, in the last 4 to 6 years or so, put up a page specifically on the 250th. and we took all of our many resources that are related to the 250th, and put

them on that page. and so, and there, you know, they're organized by tabs. so you can click this, here's historians by historians on the topic. here are videos. here are timelines. lesson plans. documents from our collection, and so. and all of them organized into one place. and again, you know, those are all free resources. any educator can't go to our website if they don't already have an account and create a free account and go in and access all of. that and like i said before, you know, the institute, we partnered with many presidential historic sites, and, you know, people are [inaudible] taught you how to access our materials and work together. so, it's work that we've done. we find that presidential sides important in our work. [inaudible] something

dave was talking about, in how to, not being afraid of engaging in those tough conversations. one of the -- i worked with the eisenhower library. we did a, i built a lesson plan around the little rock incident. and incredibly contentious in these letters from their collection, of people for and against the, that order. and students -- it's sucks them in. because these are the real voices. those primary documents talk to those kids. because this is what somebody really said. this is not somebody talking about what they said. these are their words, and they're incredibly offensive, or they're incredibly hopeful or supportive, or whatever. that's the real voice of that person. and students, you know, students are compelled by that. >> i think every civic education organization is getting geared up for that and so there will be a lot of -- i know we're working with the

library of congress as well as a number -- we are going back through -- we have a quite a few history games, history related games that we are revamping for purposes of that. but you know, for years, been talking about what you said earlier about trying to sneak it through, tom, in various places. constitution week is always a big thing in social studies. you knew that was a week where you are going to get some air time. and so we would always revamp resources for that week. so in the same kind of way, i think that a civic education organs nations are really building, there will be a lot to talk about. >> and to do more than just a day. >> yeah. >> one day we're going to study the congress to constitution. that's crazy. and then here i am, running an organization called national history day. i get it. [laughter] it's not just today, it's an experience! [laughter] >> -- >> [inaudible] history life. >> national history experience. now we're international too, so add on to it. if we just call

it nhd. flooding is year. i remember the bicentennial experience, 1976, i think some of your member? that is [inaudible] now it's going to be commemoration. so a much deeper study of not just the founding of our country and the declaration but also the expanse of 250 years. we are looking at how our founders, with their ideals, their principles, the founding principles, and how they were applied at the time, versus how have we tried to expand on that application over the last 250 years? so, it's really an exciting time to be involved in all of that. >> and i suppose, kathy, does it, not the question about inclusive history. i think of john lewis in this respect. you know, he used a remarkable phrase that i think captures what so much a part of our cast

in the civil rights bill of rights institute, and the task more broadly of civic education. completing the revolution of 1776. >> stuart, and we only have a little bit of time. can we -- one more question. >> good morning. i'm a lawyer laurie johnson from the, committee member of the white house historical association. i'm from california. and my sister is a professor. she's a middle school teacher, principal. and one of the problems that i find, trying to get her involved in some of these things is time. they really, they're so overwhelmed, you know, not having adequate resources. and another thing is the question of what you bring into the classroom, how it's presented, and the controversies. people are afraid to make mistakes. how do we try to get attention to that and address some of these situations? because we all know the right thing, and we are basically, preaching to the choir here. but how do we get some of these things

implemented, and how do we get people to be comfortable speaking about the white is uncomfortable, and not being, getting some kind of repercussions for saying the wrong thing or making mistakes? >> well i think the time issue, and david mentioned this earlier, we are involved with this education from american democracy. and that came out of a national endowment for the humanities grant. and the idea was -- we heard this for years -- people don't have guns. social studies teachers have to teach economics, world geography, civics, history, you know, you name it. everything got thrown, finance gets thrown into. their how do you let them teach more in less time? and so, that was really the point of this road map. it shows teachers how to integrate history and civics in a way. it's two sides of the same coin. and they can get more by using inquiry based method, they can get deeper in a faster manner. it's a scaffolded, it

covers elementary, all the way through high school, and so we are really busy trying to promote that across the country, everywhere from, you know, grassroots local level at school boards, to in a state and national level as well, getting people, teachers introduced to this resource that can help them be more efficient in their teaching. and i think with regards to the controversial topics, is what we've been talking about all day, it's professional development. you have to give the teachers training. and sometimes it's really, it's almost like, you know, in my profession, its like a mock trial or something. you get them in a classroom setting, and you literally help them understand by doing it, will think this controversial questions, and how to turn it into appropriate inquiry

without becoming hostile debate in the classroom. >> and giving the primary documents that they need that can speak for those in the past. and right now, i'm looking at the monitors, and it's going, overtime, overtime, and, program in program. >> reporter: [laughter] when you go to do. >> it's still great. you'll be okay until turns. >> right [inaudible] before it gets a keen and possibly off the day is here. i'll leave you with just this. an example of how studying history can get students excited and interested in making a difference. so, some years ago, our students in chicago wanted to look at the [inaudible] case of 1964, with three individuals from chicago went down to mississippi to register voters, and were brutally murdered. and no one was ever arrested or tried. there was no justice for that, for that occurrence. students wanted to look at that. so they dug in and they read through 2000 pages of fbi transcripts. they interviewed the families of each individual who was murdered, and they got an interview with edgar a killam who was the alleged murder even

though he was never arrested or tried for it at that time. and after they did that, and he wasnt going to talk to anybody but] he talked to these 3 16 year olds. after they went through all that and they went to the teacher and said, justice can be served, there really is evidence here, and a good social studies we teach you said, what are you going to do about it? and so they turned over their material to the fbi, they lobbied the governor of mississippi, they went on the hill, and talked to congress. the case was reopened, and edgar a killam went to jail. [applause] history works! thank you so much!

so for our next feature session,