I'm very pleased to welcome my colleague David Davenport of the Hoover Institution, writing with his colleague Jeffrey Sikkenga a book about civics that doesn't much show up here in the 21st century. We've been through months and months and months of upset, turmoil, disorder on campuses—especially elite campuses.
Where did that come from? What are those students and their graduate friends talking about? Why do they make statements about America that have no basis in fact?
We begin with quotes from the 18th century, from our founders. Thomas Jefferson, in your book, said that good education, civics, is the result of habit and long training.
And Tom Paine, troublemaker, said that civics contributes to the right of voting, to know how to vote. Now, who could vote and how they could vote has changed dramatically since the 18th century. But what has not changed is the need for civics. So let's start with a definition. How is civics understood as integral to the success of the United States?
Watch the full video interview above, or listen to an audio version below:
LINKS:
A Republic, If We Can Teach It on Amazon
CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor on YouTube
The John Batchelor Show on Apple Podcasts:
America's Civic Education Crisis