and we are deeply grateful for your partnership as we look forward with excitement to the next 60 years of the white house historical association and the continued success of its vital mission. thank you [applause]

well, we're all here to begin our substantive program and that is going to be a program today on sparking well we are all here to begin our substantive program, that is going to be a program on sparking civic engagement through history education. last night at the conclusion of the program i said that education is certainly a common thread that we all share. it is critical to the future of our country. and we are honored that we have as the moderator of this group, dr. kathy coren who you know is the extraordinary leader of national history day she has been on our board for many, many, years former board of our national directors of the white house this horse to orcas ocean joining her onstage is doctor david bobb, president of the bill of rights institute, ten bailey director of instructional design for the gilder lehrman institute for

american history. and wendy may-dreyer for chair of icivics. please join me in welcoming our first panel of the 2022 presidential sites summit. [applause] >> good morning everyone. i am cathy gorn executive director of national history day it is a privilege to be the moderator of this panel, this session this morning as stewart noted. education is absolutely critical. given the times that we are living in, history education is especially important. for those of you who are not familiar with national history day, here is a quick, nutshell

version of it. we sponsor a student program for six through 12th graders all across the country, also internationally, in fact. we at kids to choose topics in history, any topic they like, and then go out and conduct extensive research into archives, libraries, museums. 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. there is a real rigorous and active study of the past. it's not your memorize names and dates kind of program. the students after they have done their research they then present their findings in creative formats. they also have to relate their topic to an annual theme. i think we were clairvoyant when we set our themes up. we set them years in advance. the first year of the pandemic

was, breaking barriers in history. this year's theme is debate and diplomacy in history. timing is everything, i guess. so, once they do all of that they then present their findings that different competitions. when there is moving up the levels until our national event every year. sadly for the last three years has been virtual. we are going to be back on site next year, come hell or high water. pardon my language. >> i think that's a lot. >> is it? thank you. [laughs] we also do a lot of teacher training. for development opportunities to help social studies teachers become better history teachers. we do instructional materials, summer institutes, those kind of things. it's very critical because many of the social studies teachers, many do not major or minor in history in college, but they are 35 to teach it. we have to help them with

training and resources. that is history day in a nutshell. the title of ourself chen this morning is sparking civic engagement through history education. again, it is very timely. given the climate that we have been living in. a time when civic education, civic engagement, civic discourse in particular, is divided in very polarized. it is a time when interpretations of history and approaches to history education are being scrutinized. i think that, i would guess most of us here, hopefully all of us here would agree that history education is absolutely critical to building good citizenship. for civic engagement, the best way to do that is through an active study of the past with students. many studies over the decades have noted that student who

study history in an active, rigorous way are more likely to volunteer, more likely to engage in their communities, more likely to vote and vote thoughtfully! history education builds empathy. it is again very critical. history and social studies teachers are dealing with internal and external influences on classroom practice and curricula, so a big question is, what can we do? how can we help our teachers improve the way they teach and engage their students and a really rigorous and meaningful study of the past? that is what we are going to talk about this morning, a little bit. i am going to turn to my colleagues to hear their advice. i am going to start with wendy, wendy may-dreyer again is the board chair of icivics. when the, what's the civic

engagement mean? what does that look like? >> hello, my name and she said is wendy may-dreyer, i am the board chair -- full disclosure i am actually a route recovering attorney. [laughs] who retired recently who went to work full-time that icivics because i felt that it was such an important mission given what is happening in our country and society. pacific engagement is -- just to give you a brief background, i think he wanted us to do this, on our organization. icivics it's the largest civic education resource provider in the country. we were started by justice sandra day o'connor when she retired from the bench. although that seemed to most of us quite a long time ago, she was already sensing wet west to come. it was first fell in the judiciary and it certainly trickle down to all the branches and the government as far as lack of knowledge and

the distrust of our key institutions. she wanted to do something about it. she began researching and ultimately, ironically, a retired supreme court justice she would have never thought, she invented video games for teaching civic education. not personally, herself obviously, but she retains some of the best in the country. we have some of the highest -- i think one year we ranked third after world of war video games. which is pretty impressive for an educational video game site. we do video games and then lesson plans and professional development back that was up for teachers. we provide that for free resources for teachers we all know that they do not, especially social studies, does not have the budget to be able to afford quality resources. that is what we do. at the heart of our organization we are actually now a leader, also, in 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. not just allowed to stay, which is sad to say, but prioritized! that is a very brief nutshell what we do. civic engagement 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 about just the action part of that word. it is not just about going out and getting involved, because there is precursor to that. that is fundamental to our mission. you must have, our students must have, knowledge, skills,

they must have the right attitudes before they can become in barnstable, informed, engage citizens. otherwise they are just being told to go protest for. they are being manipulated, ponds and someone else's game. they don't really know but they they are doing. they don't know how to take part in their government. that is what we have found in our schools. so many of the states quit having any requirement for government, civics, it's called different things in different states. but to teach our students the foundations of our government. much last what to do with that, and how to apply it in their daily lives. we start by teaching history. you must know the facts, you must know factually where a country has come from. where it is headed, with the institutions are, and the importance in engaging in those. that leads to the next key factor, which is attitude. we start k through 12 at the

very early age. you have to start convincing students that they need to care about our government, that are system of government, our way of life in america. probably a lot of you have seen them but some of the more recent statistics are, well, scary. in terms of where millennials and the generations after that are 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 is almost half of millennials think that the constitution is irrelevant. let that soak in for a second. i think at 35% had no faith in our american democracy. so you've got to start with the attitudes. we've got 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. and so, we have to begin by creating those appropriate attitudes if we want them to be engaged citizens and then the last piece of that is the skills piece of it. you've got to teach them how. you've got to teach them the art of the civil discourse. not just civics discourse, but civil discourse. you've got to teach them primary document analysis. you've got to teach them, you know, media literally. you've got to teach them advocacy. all of these skills are necessary so that then, the final stage, they can be taught, okay, what do i do with all of this i've? got the knowledge, i've got a skills, i've got the appropriate attitudes. how do i get involved in my local community it's? not just government, a local community, state government, federal government, how do i participate as a citizen

[inaudible] responsibility 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 back burner. and so, we've been struggling with that alone for decades, and now we are dealing with, you know, they attack on historical truth and history education, what teachers can and cannot teach, and so on. so it's sort of a double whammy in turn in terms of the challenge that we have to teach history and teach more history in an effort to encourage civic engagement. >> we start, honestly, as an aside, when our organization of icivics started the biggest challenge was just giving resources to what many referred

to as the black sheep of the education award. stammers getting was all the resources [inaudible] [inaudible] and they were just baking for resources. now, what we're taking on, what all of our organizations are taking on's movements to just not even teach history and civics in school at all. >> just it's, a serious, serious problem and hopefully together [inaudible] we can work toward [inaudible] to [inaudible] david. different bob's president of the bill of rights institute and why don't you tell us a little bit about what the institute is doing and [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> and i'm grateful for all the work that you all do and to talking about [inaudible] that settings can even be 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 our future one of the big challenges that we have in reaching young people is that when they're thinking about history or the air thinking about civics, what often comes to mind is simply hashtag born. [laughter] they don't see it as something that they should care about. so the question of why matters most. and i think we have to be come better as a people, supporting a clear, well-defined answer to why study history. why the civically engaged. you know, fast forward from about five years in time, think of 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? will have a location in this conference to reflect on that more, but i think a lot about

that when i think of what does that mean to a 16 year old? because what we hear, and many who are watching on c-span might be constitution nodes or history buffs, a 16 year old doesn't wake up with constitution they circled on his or her check calendar. [laughter] what we have to do, i think, is show them that there is a relevance. and that's one of the things i really am concerned about [inaudible] that chilling effect that come into play. wendy also talked about this. it is vital, i believe, that we as a nation support social studies educators in the immensely difficult work that they are doing. and it was for that reason that my organization, napoli frates institute, was started just over two decades ago. it was started by an educator who had a vision that teachers wanted resources that very often when the official thing that they were handling, by their districts or their states, and that official textbook. they wanted professional learning that brought them into community and fellowship with

one another as educators who knew the very real challenges that they face. 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 [inaudible] asked administrators all across the country how much do you think that your teachers in social studies in middle school and use the officially approved textbook that's being used by the taxpayer. the administrators one out of duty. the national survey the, teachers rust, what did you use it? and they said one out of five days. big gap there. shows that our teachers across this country are entrepreneurial. they're curators of content. they put together current events, they pull together things that are drawn online so as to be able to answer those really difficult questions of why. so as to be able to talk about the things that sometimes right now we think should be

verboten. the bill of rights institute takes as ours touched touched on the declaration of independence. we work so that we might more perfectly realize the promise of equality so that all people can live in the just and free society. and that starts with young people. it starts with giving them a vision of what that would mean and showing them their place in that, and our work is really defined by providing a library of free resources that now number some 4000. all of them are available to teachers and then professional learning programs that are held around the country. and one of those resources that we were able to partner with two organizations represented here in the john f. kennedy presidential library and museum, and also the ronald reagan presidential library and museum. we integrated lesson plans for those two organizations into a comprehensive history of the united states and we find that when you have point, talk to point, and you ask students to weigh in on controversial things, and that they are capable of doing so and. i think what we need as a

nation is to say we support educators in talking about divisive concepts. there's no need to shy away from things that the white house. because as i said last night, in the most important word in the constitution is we are. we have to go to those things that. because after all, isn't the constitution a guide to managing this disagreement? it's not our purpose as a people to eliminate disagreement. it's to come to a place in which we can go about our conversations, work together to find that we, and to manage the profound and important differences that exist in a nation of 350 million people. >> indeed. i would add, too, david, what you said about young people, and how they are so very capable capable and eager to learn and to attack big issues i don't think we give them enough credit. you know, i think adults who are making some decisions about what should or should not be learned in a history class are

just not giving kids enough credit. i know from my experience with national history day students is first of all, they're not jaded by years of experience. they come at this fresh. and they are looking at the primary materials so they are allowing the historical characters to speak for themselves. and then they're interpreting the information and drawing conclusions about the why, answering what we always say to students, in national history, is so what? why should we care about that? and there are a lot, plenty of reasons why we should, and the students are wonderful about thinking about those kinds of things and studying the past. they find their heroes in the past. they found that ordinary people do extraordinary things. and it encourages them and it builds empathy and we need to allow our teachers to do more of that with their students. i'm going to turn to tim bailey. tim's director of curriculum and development and

instructional design at the gilder lehrman institute for american history. so tim, i want to answer you ask you how does the study of history play a role in encouraging civic engagement, but also in sustaining democracy? >> well thank you, cathy. and thank you, everyone. it's a pleasure to be here. and thanks to [inaudible] for providing our organization [inaudible] to speak. i think that history education and the study of history is, you cannot separate that from civic education. i mean, they are one and the same. to separate them is artificial. i know it gets done in school systems a lot, but it's kind of a false way to educate students in not recognizing the importance of history and how that is where civics evolved from. there's a, so the gilder lehrman institute was founded in 27 years ago by mr. mercer's

richard gilder and louis verma lehrman to friends who are entrepreneurs and lovers of american history. and over the years they built the largest collection of american history is documents in the world at that time. and then they decided, well now, what are we going to do with this? and so, they said, we can use this to give to, back to our alma mater, to a museum. -- into the hands of students, into the hands of children. for exactly this purpose, to teach them a love and an appreciation for american history. and how an evolution of a people, how that had happened. so they created the institute. and we now have over 80,000 documents in our collection. and that's the foundation of our, of the institute and the work that we do. and to answer your question,

that study of american history, but teaching histories through the words of people who make history. not someone's interpretation, but through the teaching students how to study history in order to gain their own understanding. and their own appreciation of their civic role. and i think that once you can, once you get students thinking about where did we come from the calls who we are, there's a, we have a couple, we created a [inaudible] two are documents that ice in our collection that i think is really relevant and speak to what has been set up here a, but also to what was emphasized last night. ion onethat one of the pieces oe poster is a draft of the constitution, during the constitutional convention. one thing that, they get a question of the students, students studying history, you talked about this, you know, being get boring. absolutely.

the other thing that they considered, this has been carved in stone, right? this is always how it was going to happen. there's no, there's none of this, this sets of at the time history was happening, nobody was going to know what was going to happen. so that's [inaudible] that's something you really need to instill in them. well, one of the copies of the draft of the constitution says, we, the states of, and this the states, and then goes on to the articles. we have that on one side of the border. and on the other side of the poster, it says, we, the people of the united states. that shift in american thinking, that ideological shift that happened from thinking of from the articles of confederation of each separate state has its own little country to we, the people, as one nation, is huge. and that, and that goes throughout our history. how are countries has evolved, how we've thought of ourselves

and reflected on ourselves as a nation, and as a people, and as the role individuals having that, is something you can instill instructed through the study of the words, of the events, of our past, that lead them into that civic role. and it was already said, right? you talked about that. the foundational aspect of civics's history. and that's, that's really the role that we see. we have a program that we've developed, called teaching civics through history. and it has three components to it, and the first component is laying that foundation. and so, let's say the topic is free speech. we go through the evolution of free speech in the country and teach the students that. the second piece is current events. and we wrap current events into, okay, what's being talked about in free speech, and we look at all sides, right? we look at, we literally look at all sides, we partnered with

a website, all sites, to help look at, right, left, center. and so students can see it from their perspective, but now they are looking at it from a point of view of informed scholarship instead of opinion. tand then we go into exactly as you alluded to, what do you do about it, right? 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 an absolutely natural one. is something that we see a great response to. >> in response to your comment about your poster, it sounds like what you've done is shown how it was these united states then became the united states. big difference there, right?

>> exactly. >> 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 feel uncomfortable teachers being told they are not allowed to do that, wow, there are some parts of our history that are just uncomfortable. that is the way that it was. how do we help our teachers being comfortable in teaching the uncomfortable? >> 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 the current situation that teachers find themselves in? how are your organizations helping with that? i think the one of the things that we did as an organization is after the george floyd murder we said we need to address this! not, we are in absolutely a political organization but teachers are going to be asked by students, and they need to have someone helping them. so 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, his name is bobby jeffries from ohio state, came in and did a history of race relations, african american experiences for us. and then we did a pedagogical session, now you've heard this history how do you go into your classroom and teach it? we provided that some plans,

and approaches for teachers to bring back to their classrooms. it was so popular i intended it originally as a one-off. you know, we were going to do this -- but it was so popular but now it's a monthly program. we take on an issue. for instance, last month -- you want to talk about prescient, right? last month we did a talk on a history of u.s. foreign policy. which is a little bit in the news right now. so, helping teachers, how do you approach these questions? from a historical avenue, point of view, how has that issue involved in our history. >> wendy? >> yeah, i think it's twofold. one of the issues is what david touched on earlier, we have to get over this squeamishness we have about discussing conflict in the classroom. our american history is not pretty all the time --

as well as history today there is lots of things that need to be discussed. kids are willing to take this on. look, we are a non partisan organization. our biggest position is that there should not be partisanship in the classroom. you can have honest discussions if they are steeped in fact. i think that is a big issue we are having right now, we are all from all over the country. i'm from texas, you would never have guessed from my accent, right? [laughs] we obviously had a big legislative session here where agitation legislation relative to what teachers can and can't teach in the classroom was at the very center of the debate. it is going around in all the states. whether you are in a red state or a blue state, all likelihood if you haven't already you will

in the next few terms, legislation that talks about that. it is critical. we fought very hard here in texas to preserve the ability to teach current events and to talk about these things. it is important that there is support for teachers both from society at large as well as their administration, for having these discussions in the classroom. the second critical, critical, fees for that is professional development for teachers. they do not know how to have these conversations safely. in a manner that doesn't turn political or doesn't cause an uproar in the classroom or lane them on the front page of the newspaper the next day because some parents is mad about what was discussed in the classroom. they do not have that training. i can tell you from teaching with teachers directly they do not have the opportunity to go get the training. once again, social studies is the bottom of the heap in the education world, they just are. limited budgets, i hear this all the time from teachers and

principals they do not have the budget for social studies teachers to get substitute teachers in the classroom so they can go take a day and get trained. even the teachers that want to get the training, even when 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 is a really desperate state of affairs. we have to have accessible, professional development. one of you alluded to this as well, earlier, the fact that most of our social studies teachers, a good majority of them, frankly, coming out of college teaching these subjects. the last history or government class they had was in high school. maybe they graduated in a state that they required them to take a college or university level

history class, maybe. but that is just in a few states. it is tough stuff. and so goes back to your question on how to presidential sites help. in texas, we just got through with a big campaign on legislation. one of the things we weren't able to accomplish woes getting an requirement called civic academies, getting teachers and administrators get a certain amount of professional development training in social studies, civics, history, government, all of the above. part of that program that is getting set up has to include good, rich resources for helping teachers navigate these minefields in their classrooms. there are a lot of great teachers out there who really want to do the right thing. they really want to teach we'll, if we just give them the resources to do that. >> they need that to be

consistent. not just the one shot now, but a quick workshop -- a one hour webinar. but they need some consistency in helping them not just understand and sit through the material that he might have but, the training in how to think. what is really important here is helping young people learn how to think critically. we have to help their teachers do the same. they just haven't had the opportunity. >> they haven't had any chance for discussion. that is why training is important. it can get complicated. you can have kids with hot opinions coming into the classroom. how to manage those discussions appropriately so we can give them a model of what's civil discourse in our nation should look like. >> that's the key thing. teachers model this discourse for us. when they are working, as i think the lion share of educated to across this country, teach how to think not what's to think.

it's incumbent on the rest of us regardless of our roles, i think it's particularly critical at the presidential sites are stepping up and helping to support the educators in this effort. let me just build on what was said by painting a day in the life. if you are showing up in the classroom and you are one of the nation's 200,000 social studies educators at middle school or high school level. it's january 7th, 2021, you know what you're going to talk about! you know what you are going to engage the students on. but what you don't know is building principle or the superintendent, or the legal counsel for that district might be saying. oftentimes there is subtle but steady pressure to avoid those kind of discussions i think what we need in the united states it's really a new sort of social contract. we need parents to come along educators and say we support a viewpoint diverse classroom. one that routes conversations in the study primary source

documents. that ask students to engage in these topics, and as a parent to come alongside t-shirts in that effort to really and gender the kind of conversation that we are not seeing modeled very much from washington d.c., or our state capitals. if we can embark upon that path, i am confident that our nations educators are up to it. we see it every day. those professional learning programs is the bed and butter of the work at our bill of rights institute. today we've had 25,000 educators come through and engage in programs of a length of one day or more. they are very interested in engaging in 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. >> yeah i think that, the key to all of this is training. is getting teachers -- i think that all three of us,

four of us, sorry, would agree that there is nothing that can substitute for having a teacher learned how to do this well. you know, all of our organizations have that goal in mind. we all train teachers. we have a network of over 30,000 affiliate schools. they are teachers who work with us who we communicate with regularly. we reach out and work with school districts all over the country. and at state levels, many of the historical associations here we work with. we partner with many of you in different programs that train teachers. this is something that, again, it's not a mystery, right? [laughs] it's not like we are trying to figure out a puzzle here. we know what to do! it's more of a lack of social

initiative. the country taking, you know, this is important. this is the direction where we should be moving this is what we should be investing in. i think we have a lot of the answers, it's just implementing them. >> i mean, to further answer your question about what can presidential sites do, i'll give you some very, very specific tasks. you know, there's reformation happening in a lot of the areas of the country. there's a lot of, as i alluded to earlier, state legislation that's happening. check into what's going on in your state and find out. here in texas we've started a coalition to, now that we are through the legislative phase, we're doing the heavy lifting now of the civic academies preparation, as well as revision of state standards, so and so forth. presidential

sites can offer locations for teacher training. right? and they're going to be a lot of programs and certainly in the state of texas, there's going to be a lot of programs going on at a local as well as state wide nature, where you can get involved in providing resources and providing speakers that can come help with professional development and training. you know, there is, and just, as tim spoke about, the general support as well. support the efforts to get behind the education community. so that there is a willingness among the society, among your local area, among the administrators, to teach the civics and history and to have their teachers appropriately trained. so there's lots of very on the boots, on the ground type of efforts that presidential sites can absolutely get involved in right now.

>> and we are sort of preaching to the choir, of course. so, what we need to do, we all need to engage in civic engagement by writing to, contacting, calling, getting meetings with, with not just teachers and helping them with materials, and with the school administrators. and also with members of congress, members of state legislatures. i think if we all could engage in that kind of specific work, then hopefully we can help people understand, people in those policy making positions, understand how critical it is that we continue to teach history and teach it in a meaningful way, and more of it. and not let it remain in the 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. it'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 tested, 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, outlook, 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.

>> teaching federal budgeting as part of math. >> 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 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 surface indicate and education to be a legal 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 whether 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 in the particular president or historical figure that you, that you are looking to focus on? >> yeah. and i think about -- >> i think i'll interrupt. >> go ahead. >> we have only a few minutes left for question and answer. anybody have a question or a comment? that there? i think you need to run up here to the microphone. >> 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 summarize 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% off the rest of the country has fallen down as a 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 president? >> 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, it's civic friendship. people have all into conspiratorial thinking find solidarity 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 right off. they might hold ideas that are abhorrent 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 and 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 civic skills that we talked about. you've got to start this current generation as early as kindergarten, and 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, individual, what happened in the past. you've got to look at all the angles. and that's very important. >> hello, i'm catherine all good from the massachusetts historical society. and i was reflecting as you were asking, what can your presidential sites do, i was in my own rethinking, what can presidential sites to? what can we do? and i was thinking about my own, you know, organization, which is a fabulous collection and 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 with kind of as an ninja

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 [inaudible] as not beat me off. i just have to say, national history day has been a godsend. 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 we 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 that you lend to that can really help you sit at the school level as well. >> it extends value and reach. >> right. and you can multiply it your impact just by partnering and linking 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. >> 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 is the thing that is cut first. 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 i'll articulate publicly

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 boys home 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. >> right. let me just speak about my organization. so 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 taught 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. referring to 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 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 a day, 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. it's a lot easier. 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 task at 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 lorna 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, pitching 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 time. social studies teachers have to teach economics, world geography, civics, history, you know, you name it. everything

gets thrown in, 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, like a mock trial

session. 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, end program end program. >> reporter: [laughter] when you go to do. >> it's still green. 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 anybody but he talked to these three 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, it's