From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

We live in a critical moment right now.

There is, as we speak, a heated debate going on about the nature of American history and particularly the American founding.

Is it something that we should be proud of or something that we

should be ashamed of? This is your host, Scott Bertram. And that's Dr. Kathleen O'Toole,

assistant provost for K-12 education at Hillsdale College. We talk with Dr. O'Toole this week

about the release of the 1776 curriculum from Hillsdale College.

Dr. O'Toole, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Scott.

And we're very excited today to be talking about the release of Hillsdale's 1776 curriculum.

We'll tell you right at the front here that you can find it online.

K-12.hillsdale.edu, then click on curriculum. We'll see a link for the 1776

curriculum, and we'll give you the address again later on, but that's how to find it. Dr. O'Toole,

what is this? What is the 1776 curriculum? Well, Scott, it's a 2,400 page series of lessons on the American founding and the Civil War for K-12 students.

Our goal with the curriculum is to provide American teachers, students, and homeschooling parents with all of the tools that they need

to study the American founding and the Civil War for any grade level, K through 12.

You'll find in the curriculum 2,400 pages of resources. That includes primary source documents, advice for teachers before teaching each lessons, a resource guide including books by historians, and primary sources that we have vetted and compiled to go along with the curriculum.

We've got sample assignments, activities, assessments in there,

and some introductory material which talks about the place of the teacher in the classroom and the need for an honest approach to the teaching of American history and civics today.

So why is Hillsdale College and

and K-12 education doing this, making this available for literally anyone and everyone across the

country? Well, we live in a critical moment right now. There is, as we speak, a heated debate going on about the nature of American

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