Givers, Doers, & Thinkers—A Podcast on Philanthropy and Civil Society · Jeremy Beer

David Bobb & the quiet revolution in education

·42 min·2 clips

Bobb says the Bill of Rights Institute fills a gap teachers use four out of five days.

1. Givers, Doers, & Thinkers uses this David Bobb episode to discuss civic education, the Bill of Rights Institute, and education reform. 2. Jeremy Beer interviews David Bobb, president of the Bill of Rights Institute, who joined in 2013 and has worked on civic engagement and education reform for about 20 years. 3. The episode asks what a genuine civics education should include beyond government. 4. Bobb says strong civics starts with history, then character, then civil society, and only then government. 5. He says civics is about "being an American" and about the "lifelong practice" of the pursuit of happiness. 6. Beer presses on whether American history is being taught mainly as exploitation and oppression. 7. Bobb says "the American part of American civics drops out" and says the Declaration and Constitution have been reduced in many classrooms. 8. He points to Frederick Douglass and "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" as evidence that the founding principles were for everybody, even when not yet fulfilled. 9. Beer cites California ethnic studies standards for kindergarten through sixth grade, including lessons on resistance, power structures, protest art, and the Black Lives Matter movement. 10. Bobb says the Bill of Rights Institute answers those trends with "great content" rather than just critiquing bad materials. 11. He says teachers usually spend only one out of five days in textbooks, while a 2019 survey and the institute's own model suggest the rest is online. 12. Bobb describes California's 1,000-page ethnic studies standards as surprisingly radical and says he spent 25 years in the field before reading them. 13. He argues that Howard Zinn and the 1619 Project focus on "the ugly" and can teach students that early America had "no redeeming kind of value." 14. Bobb warns that a steady drip of negative history and a chilling effect on discussion can make students less willing to disagree in class. 15. He cites a Knight Foundation survey saying 56% of high school students felt comfortable disagreeing with a classmate or teacher. 16. He argues that students want inquiry, that teachers should challenge them, and that debate belongs in liberal education. 17. The interview is conversational and combative in spots, with Beer pressing Bobb on radicalization, political violence, and activism. 18. Bobb answers in a policy-oriented, explanatory style and repeatedly returns to localism, teachers, and practical classroom resources. 19. Teachers, parents, and civics-minded listeners interested in K-12 reform will get the most from it. 20. Listeners looking for a purely partisan culture-war argument may skip it.

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