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.

Slavery existed. Slavery is a barbaric practice. It's a stain on the founding. It's kind of the central stain.

You know, the one that they didn't get rid of slavery in 1776, but what's amazing is that a bunch of people, many of whom own slaves, declared that all men are created equal.

That is they put the principle down in the Declaration of Independence, and then American history is a playing out of those principles.

This is your host Scott Bertram, and that's Dr. Matthew Spalding, Vice President of

Washington Operations and Dean of the Van Andal Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale in D.C.

We talk in depth with Dr. Spalding today about what citizens should learn about America and

civics education across the country. Dr. Spalding, thanks so much for joining us. Good to be with you,

Scott. Talking today about a piece you wrote in the Washington Examiner, what should citizens learn

about America and civics education in general? Why is civics education important? Well, that's a, that's actually a great way to start the conversation.

And the title of the piece kind of actually alludes to the problem of itself,

which is the question here is, is there a certain type of education that is above and beyond, say,

technical education or history simply or literature,

but a certain type of education that is appropriate for citizens.

Traditionally, we have called this referred to as civic education. There's a type of education that is citizen, especially in a free country, in an American country in particular, the American constitutional republic.

Citizens ought to know certain things about their country, about how it works, about the rule of law, the Constitution rights, human equality. And that's crucial for being a good citizen, for being a good citizen in a republic,

and a component of that is that you need to know how the history of the American regime began and played those principles out and what their status is today.

So there's actually a much broader question here in terms of why is this type of education,

important, say, in the United States, a free republic in which we self-govern, as opposed, say,

a monarchy in the past, or closed society or, say, in China, right here, it's actually

important for self-governing citizens to be educated about the source of their rights and

ability to govern themselves under the rule.

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