 Good evening. Thank you for joining us at the National Archives. Now please welcome Jalen Charity for a reading of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. Jalen is a student at the Theodore Roosevelt High School here in Washington, DC. Good evening everyone. Thank you. It's an honor to be here this evening representing the DC public school community. As student body president, I recognize the importance of engaging in civic learning to encourage students to take advantage of the rights they are given in the very Constitution held in this building. Now I will begin my reading of the preamble. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the government. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to establish, abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Let's give Jalen another round of applause. Wonderful. And what an exciting evening in store for all of us. My name is Rodney Slater, and I want to welcome you to your National Archives. I'm honored to serve as the chair of the National Archives Foundation Board of Directors. The National Archives Foundation is a non-profit partner of the National Archives providing important and vital support for the civics and education programs that are sponsored by the National Archives, including tonight's conversation. The Foundation also supports the National Civics Initiative here at the Archives that engages students and educators and the general public to learn of our past and to illuminate the future that's before us. And by the way, that future is bright with students like Jalen and the others here in our audience tonight. I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the generous donors and supporters of the National Archives Foundation that make events like this one possible. I'd also like to acknowledge Robert Mosbacher, Jr., who is the head of our civics committee on the board and we're so happy to have him here tonight. There may be other board members, but we would ask if you just raise your hands or salute in some way but we're just excited about all those who have come to be with us tonight. We'd like to thank them for their tireless effort again to support the work of this important fantastic institution. We have a wonderful program this evening. Today's or tonight's conversation is a partnership between the National Archives Foundation and ICIVICS and we're celebrating civics learning week, an annual event in March that brings together students, educators and policymakers and leaders in the public and private sectors to highlight the importance of civics education. This year's theme is 2024 and beyond civics education as a unifying force. Tonight, the archivist of the National Archives, Dr. Colleen Shogan and the U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. Miguel Cardona will discuss the importance of civics education and the vital role that it plays in a healthy democracy and its importance as it relates to how we might prioritize civics education across this country for the better good of the country and the better good of our citizens to create a more informed citizenry. Again, this looks like a fantastic evening. We want to get our program started and what I'd like to do now is to introduce our program partner, the Executive Director of ICIVICS, Louise Dubey. Louise has served as the Managing Director of Digital Learning for WGBH in Boston, where she helped to launch PBS, the Learning Media Program. She began her career as an attorney in Montreal, Canada and holds a law degree from McGill University as well as an MBA from Yale University. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Dubey. Wow, it's been quite a day today. We started this morning fairly early. We had a great conversation. We had a particularly great conversation between Justice Sotomayor and Justice Cohen Barrett and I couldn't be happier. It was reported in the Times that they discussed the intersection of the Supreme Court between a kindergarten classroom and a marriage that could not end in divorce. So we'll hope to do as well tonight. So thank you so much for being with us today. I want to thank the National Archives Foundation and the National Archives for their incredible leadership and for their welcoming us today tonight. And again, since last year, they were the original partners with us. Not every archivist would choose to put civic learning at the center of what they do, yet the National Archives and particularly this archivist are doing that. And I'm really grateful to them to help bring life to the documents and to the civic life of our country. So with that, yeah. So this caps the National Forum today. It's my great honor to introduce the archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan. Dr. Shogan is incredibly talented, so I'm not going to tell you all about her because it would take me the whole night. She was sworn in as the 11th archivist of the United States in May last year after being nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Most recently, Dr. Shogan was served as the senior vice president and director, excuse me, of the David M. Rubinstein Center at the White House Historical Association. Before that, she worked in the U.S. Senate and the senior, was a senior executive at the Library of Congress. She taught at Georgetown and her research, interestingly, focused on the American presidency, the presidential rhetoric, women in politics and Congress. So she's a native of Pittsburgh and she holds a BA in political science from Boston College, a PhD in American politics from Yale University. We could not be in better hands for our nation than with Dr. Shogan. Dr. Cardona was sworn in as the 12th, so 11th, 12th U.S. Secretary of Education in March 2021. Secretary Cardona has three children whose grandparents is one of three children whose grandparents moved from Puerto Rico in the 1960s for better opportunities in the mainland United States. That experience and his bicultural upbringing has helped shape his passion to serve all students and improve their opportunities for success. Secretary Cardona focused throughout his career on raising the bar for equity and excellence in education for all learners, guides his leadership in the U.S. Department of Education in service of the nation's 65 million students. During his tenure, Secretary Cardona has highlighted the urgency of seizing the moment to intentional collaboration, particularly working with partnerships with parents, families, students and educators, and the opportunity we have as a nation. Not only to recover from the pandemic, but to reimagine higher performing and more equitable education systems that were better for all. Secretary Cardona was previously served as commissioner of education from in Connecticut. We are incredibly lucky to have a conversation between these experts who are committed to civic learning. So please help me give them a warm round of applause, Secretary Cardona and the Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colin Shogan. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was a great introduction. Welcome to the National Archives and thank you for being here this evening for an engaging conversation we hope on civics and history education and some of the challenges that we face. So maybe, Mr. Secretary, you can just give us an overview of what you think the status or the condition of civics and history education is in the United States today just to kick us off. Sure. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. This is a great place to be to talk about something that I love dearly. And, you know, I want to thank you. I want to thank the foundation iCivics. And, you know, I have to say I was looking forward to this visit and, you know, connected to the question of the state of civics. We have a lot going on in this country and I think it's time for a civics renaissance. And I think we have work to do to be intentional about reclaiming the narrative of civics and giving students an opportunity, an unvarnished opportunity to explore it. But so I was feeling good about that, but I felt even better when I walked in and I saw the face of a former fourth grade student of mine who's really leading the work in civics. Brian Kofa and Sesco from Merritt and Connecticut from my hometown. When I was a fourth grade teacher, Brian was a student and all these years I've seen him embrace civics in a way that really brought it to students. And when I was a commissioner, we partnered together, Sally and the entire team, to really promote a kid governor program. And I saw in the program a former student of mine bringing civics to life for students across the state. So while I think, you know, we're all maybe numb a little bit with all the breaking news and some, you know, people thinking civics is that. I'm optimistic with students like Brian and all of you here who are really bringing an opportunity for students to engage in civics. More deeply, I'm optimistic that we have an opportunity to really double down our efforts and lift it. When I talk about well-rounded education, we talk a lot about recovery, but if we just focus on recovery, we're missing an opportunity to really provide comprehensive learning and comprehensive experiences for students. And I think civics has to be baked into the DNA of how we reimagine schools. Can you tell us, so I like that phrase, civic renaissance. Maybe I'll adopt that at some point. I'll give you credit, though, for sure. But maybe you can tell us, so, you know, I'm kind of curious about your answer to this question. What can the, as you as secretary of education or the department of education do to affect a civics renaissance? What are the policies that the federal government can help with in order to get from where we are right now to where we want to be? You know, we could talk about technical strategies, right? I'd like to think that we need an adaptive shift in this space. So with technical strategies, there are some things that we are doing. You know, there's close to $20 million in American civics and history grants. I civics is one of those that receive that and they're doing great work. We've, you know, at the direction of the president have increased, I use the word intentionality a lot. We've been more intentional about promoting voter participation of students. So this, I promised my team I would wave it. We're really engaging in strategies to try to get our students, even in higher education, more actively engaged in the process. It's their process by allowing them to do federal work studies to do this in a very nonpartisan way. This is really about giving them an opportunity to explore it. So between grants, technical assistance, resources that we provide, so those are some of the technical things. But I think adaptively we have to really, I think, position civics learning, civics education. And I'm not just talking about that class in high school that you take for a graduation requirement. I think that does a disservice to civics when it's pigeonholed into one specific task. I think we need to start thinking about how to create better citizens by engaging them in the early years and having an opinion or sharing their thoughts on what they see happening around them as they get older, engaging them in more specific leadership activities or service activities that involve civic engagement. And then as they get older and older, formalizing that a bit more, but making that part of the DNA of our education system, that shift is where I mean, when I say there's technical things, but there's that mentality that we have to embrace it a little bit more. So those are some of the things. We have grants. We have technical assistance. We partner with many of you here in the room to provide programming to schools. And I think it's more important these days that we do it in a nonpartisan way because so much else about education has become divisive or partisan. We have to make sure that we preserve civics education as an opportunity for all students to benefit equally. So we have a lot of non-profit leaders here this evening, people from academia, people from the public history community. They want to be part of this and they are part of this because they're engaged in civics and civics learning week. So what would your message be to them as partners in this work? What can they do to help improve civic and history education? You know, I was a couple of hours ago meeting with the National Association of Elementary School Principles and the National Association of Secondary School Principles. So there was a room about 400 school principals who tell me that over the last three years it's been much more difficult to lead because of the divisive nature of our country, really. And local politics. So we look to partners like you to help guide schools in ways they could do it in a way that embraces different perspectives. I think, to be very frank with you, I think a lot of our educators right now are interested but are concerned to do it in a way that creates division or disruption in their schools. I've spoken to college presidents who take the word equity out of remarks because they're afraid that it could trigger someone to create a problem. I talked to school superintendents who, you know, their livelihood is at stake because they're trying to promote engagement. So it's a very fragile time right now. And I look to all of you to partner with schools to help provide that support, that guidance, that nudge that, yeah, this could be done and we can help you. And we could do it in a way that brings people together. I always say education should bring people together. But at a time in this country, to be very frank with you, it's, you know, our education system right now is they're reeling from some of the challenges that we've had over the last three or four years that have resulted in partisanship and division. And unfortunately, I think another thing that we've seen in our schools over the last several decades, I could tell you as an educator, is the narrowing down of what is taught. And that means that civics and even sciences are not as prevalent as they could and should be in our schools. So this is an area where I think partnership is natural, where when we're talking about civics, literacy and even numeracy could be woven into it. It could be brought into different levels, elementary, middle and high school. So those are some ways that I would like to see natural engagement. But I also think our educators need a little bit of support, technical assistance and guidance on how it could be done given the political landscape that many districts face. Let's talk, you had mentioned earlier in your remarks, you talked a little bit about experiential learning and that component as part of particularly civics education. That was how I was in part taught civics education when I was in the 90s, you know, when I went to high school in the 90s. So I had to go to a local town meeting as part of my civics requirement. And I went to the meeting and it was really interesting. I thought it was basically to satisfy the requirement. But it ended up, they were talking about at my local township meeting, they were talking about a stop sign that they wanted to remove and it ended up being in my neighborhood. They wanted to remove the stop sign and I had lived at that neighborhood my whole life and I knew it was a really busy intersection. I ended up standing up and talking about why they shouldn't remove the stop sign. And of course, you know, the next day my mom got all these phone calls from people saying, oh, your daughter was talking at the township meeting. So I mean, that was really actually when I look back on it, I mean, I remember it and I was probably only 14 or 15 years old and I remember that moment. So how can we reincorporate those types of experiences in civics education? Is that valuable or can we do that today given the divisive nature of some of the things you talked about? We can. Look, and you know, I think that's such an authentic story of how, what civics really means. And oftentimes we narrow it down to the, you know, remembering facts or specific discreet, you know, skills or information that you learn. Where, in my opinion, that is not only how you develop civic involvement but leadership in students and it's more authentic. So those should be embedded, as I said earlier, in the experience of children all the way through. When I was in a district, one of the things that I took a lot of pride in is giving structuring youth voice into the decisions of the school. And talk about empowering students. I often say students have a voice, we're just not always designed to listen. And, you know, teenagers have opinions on things that are happening around them. Oftentimes we're so busy with tasks that we're not engaging them into that authentic conversation or action to improve the conditions around them. So that experience that you had, I think, is a way to engage students. I think, you know, we need to see more of that. I think we've gone away from that. And sometimes the fear of the challenge makes people a little bit nervous. But that's where I think, you know, in partnership with colleagues here, it's something that programs can't be done. I'll tell you, when I engage students in that youth voice process in that district, I ended up implementing it in a way that when I evaluated the school principals, their evaluation included comments, feedback, ratings on the degree to which youth voice was part of the school improvement plan. So it was really well developed. And I partnered with Everyday Democracy, a civic organization in Connecticut with a small grant. And they helped develop that model. And then when that grant ended and when they left the district, that became part of the district culture. And that's what I mean by embracing it in part of the culture, similar to your stop sign story there. We've talked a lot about focusing on younger people, which is entirely appropriate. But we know that civics and even history education is really a lifelong venture. It's not something that stops when you're 17 or 18 years old. It has to continue your entire life. So how do we approach that when post-secondary education? How do we continue to have adults engage in civic learning and even history education? You know, it seems like there are very deliberate efforts to rewrite history in some parts of our country. You know, revisionist history type mentality that is pervasive in some communities is concerning. And my answer to your question is the same message that I had to the school leaders earlier today. You have to be intentional and on the offense about promoting it or else you're going to be left with what happens when those who want to rewrite history have the final word. And I think in higher education, which is typically more likely to you'll find students who take up a cause or there are groups or organizations that really engage students differently. I think it's when we get out into the outside of the higher education space where it becomes very few are engaged in it and it's not open as much. Again, I think it's critical that schools model it, higher education institutions promote it and if you're promoting it from elementary school all the way up, the goal is to have people who are civically engaged as just who they are and that it's something that they seek as a part of their function being a part of a community. And you would hope what we try to do here at the National Archives, of course, we're the home of all federal records in the history of the United States. So in part of our civics and history education, we're trying to, for kids, for K-12, we're trying to enable younger people to look at our records and look at them critically and understand how to analyze an original source primary document. And if you learn that skill when you're younger, you should hopefully be able to do that as an adult and then be able to, if there are revisions to history, you can make, then you have the tools to make the assessment for yourself, correct? Well, that's the goal, right? I always tell my, I have two teenagers at home. Be critical consumers of information, even if it looks real. Look, let's face it, we're in an age now where, you know, you can read something and it could be disinformation, misinformation, you know, in this era of artificial intelligence, which is exciting. It's exciting. We also have to be more critical of what we're consuming. And I think that's a skill that's critical, it's really important. And what I'm finding is if it's not taught explicitly, it's almost like you're going to have to correct the wrongs when students fall, you know, victim to whatever, whether it's propaganda misinformation. And I think the same is true for adults. I don't know that we have a strategy for that. I'll be very frank with you, you know, the more you turn on, I don't have to tell this group, you could turn on one channel, you're going to get one perspective, turn on another, you're going to get the total opposite perspective. And it doesn't always seem like there's the middle ground. So I think we are also practiced that daily that we have to be critical consumers and look at biases, confirmation bias. And I think for our students, younger and younger, we're going to have to teach those skills. And we're going to have to support our educators to teach those skills. This is different. I think going back to the primary documents and primary intent, I think, is also very critical. But we have to be weary that we're helping our students be critical consumers of information. That's right. So let's talk about technology, brought up AI. But how can technology isn't, it shouldn't be juxtaposed vis-a-vis civics or history or, you know, STEM versus civics or history. How can we merge technology and civics and history in a way that can really pursue integrated learning where it's not either or? Right. And I think, you know, again, going back to students' passions, I know my daughter for a while wanted to be an environmental scientist because she had very strong feelings about what was happening. And she was using that interest and that STEM field to use her voice and engage in activities in her school. You know, they're not mutually exclusive. I think a good education system, a comprehensive education system, really merges it to where it's seamless. How many folks who are civic leaders take up a passion that brings them into the arts STEM? And I think we have to look for ways to make sure that our school experiences are blurring the lines between this topic and that topic. But the reality is our schools are designed the way they were two pandemics ago. 42 minutes here, 42 minutes here, and there's no cross. So I favor the interdisciplinary deeper problem-solving, the experiential learning, the problem-solving where you're going to have to use different skills and different disciplines to come to something. And then it's even better when you can apply it through some civic engagement. An example, you talked about the stop sign. My daughter had the privilege of being elected to serve as a student representative on their local Board of Education Council. And, you know, so twice a month she would go to these meetings as a junior in high school and report out on things, but also comment when asked questions. And, you know, in high school dress code policy is pretty important stuff. I don't know. And if you have high schoolers and you know how the trends change like every month, right? So, you know, to have hoodies or not to have hoodies, to wear caps or not to wear caps, spaghetti straps or no spaghetti straps. So, you know, she really got into this. And, you know, her persuasive skills in her, it was almost, I saw the passion that she had and advocacy for equity. Well, you know, students that are built differently get in trouble more because they're built differently. And that's not fair because they can't control. And I'm looking at this girl. I'm like, wow, she really found a passion. She ended up presenting something to the board and the board policy. Now, keep in mind, I was the assistant superintendent in this district. I was a school principal for 10 years in that district. So, 25 years, my wife worked in the district, too. So, she's over here presenting why she thinks and this or that. And, you know, I saw a side of her, like the passion. This is, you know, we have to be just. And she used writing skills. She used in public speaking. All these things came together under this activity that she was asked to do as a board member. That's how learning should be, right? If you talk to our youth today, they have things that they're passionate about. We don't always have the platform for them to express it in a way that they're growing and learning. We need more of that if we expect them to be civically engaged when they leave our four walls. So, we have some questions from the audience. So, I'm going to take some of those questions now. So, oh, this is a good one. Brian from Connecticut asks. Oh, Brian, did you have a memorable civic learning experience that shaped who you are today? Good question. Yeah, that's a good question. You know, my daughter's story is one, but when I was a school principal, I was really passionate. I love that job. School principal is such a fantastic job. You know, you have families and students and you see them grow and you see siblings. I really love that job. And I continued my studies when I was a school principal and I was working on my doctorate. And I was wrapping up my doctoral program. And I was asked by the then Speaker of the House to serve on this commission a task force at the Capitol in Hartford, a legislative achievement gap task force to look at policies in the state of Connecticut to address the disparities and opportunities and outcomes and students based on race and place. That was a task. Now, I'm, you know, 35 years old, I'm a school principal and I'm thinking, what am I going to do in Hartford? You know, like, I'm out of my element. Like, what am I going to do there? You know, I kind of like, thanks for the recommendation. And then like two days later, he's like, oh, can you chair it? I'm like, oh, great. Now I'm going to chair this. I have a senator. I had the commissioner of education on the task force. I'm a school principal in a town, you know, and I'm like, this is way over, like, I shouldn't be doing this. I was wrapping up my doctorate and my doctoral dissertation was using political will to address achievement disparities. Kind of meh, right? So the first couple of meetings, I was, I didn't know Robert's rules. I was just like, your turn, your, you know, but, but I knew education. I knew students. And as a first generation Latino who grew up in a school system that is 80% free and reduced lunch, I have a lived experience that I could bring to that table. And as the year two progressed, I felt comfortable thinking of myself as an expert in this area. And it was an increase in civic engagement that made me really feel like I'm doing more than just serving as that school principal. I love that job. But now I can help influence the state. You know, fast forward a couple of years, more like five or six years, and I became a nominee for the commissioner position and then the rest is history. So it was that increase in civic engagement that gave me the confidence and the wherewithal to think of myself, you know, to help more folks. That story is, is one that I think, or that experience and that civic engagement that I was pushed into. Here I'm going from my doctorate in this work and I still felt like, ooh, do I belong here? Yeah, I did belong there. And a lot of times, you know, civic engagement is limited by our own fears of the unknown. And I think that's another thing that I would welcome. You know, like the Roman historian, Levi said, we fear something in proportion to our ignorance of it. So when we don't know where we're going, we tend to fear it. How many of our students have great ideas and can really engage in civic activities, but fear what it is, you know, that was my experience as a school principal wrapping up my doctorate. It's interesting. Political, I mean, I'm a political scientist by training, but a lot of the political science research has shown that when you participate in non-political activities, so maybe volunteering for the PTA or participating in a civic organization in your town, organizing, you know, a recycling drive or a food drive or something like that, those skills are really translatable and transferable into political realms or governing realms. So it's really important, there's gateways for people to get the confidence they need to then be able to step into that sphere. Those skills are transferable. And then the confidence that you gain, you know, and you're right because I wasn't into the politics. I didn't really want, you know, I was a school principal, but I didn't, you know, and it was at a different time. It wasn't as partisan as it is now, but it was something I was going out of my comfort zone. But man, did I love it. And I think our students, too, it's kind of like my daughter, you know, if I were to tell her before, I want you to present in front of the board of education, no way. But now you talk about an issue that's important to her. She feels a little more confident. And those skills translate into civic engagement or other activities. Okay, so we have a question from Robin from Georgia. With the rise of anti-Semitism and other prejudices, what can we do to help educators address difficult historical subjects in the classroom in an honest and unbiased way? To protect them. Public education is under attack. There are folks who are looking to sow division to then sell a private voucher option as a better alternative. Public education is under attack. So teachers need to be given, I say the ABCs of teaching. They need to be given agency, better working conditions and competitive salary. But going to the agency, agency means trusting them as professionals. I think professional development, giving them the tools that they need to be successful. I think we need to have robust curriculum that presents the truth. And we need to help students become thinkers. And good civics education does that. Those are some of the things that I think we need to do to move it forward. This is where I think it really requires intentionality around a bipartisan approach. When we think about civics, we think of one side or the other, it's a losing battle. We really have to make sure that our students see multiple perspectives. I love debates. I love, you know, when schools foster healthy discourse, exchange of discourse, I love that. But we don't see as much of that as we should. With regard to higher education and anti-Semitism, anti-Arab sentiment and Islamophobia, that really spiked a lot after October 7th. We work to really put together resources to tell leaders, let's not shy away from this, because you're going to deal with the symptoms of it on your campus. Have the tools. Here are some tools that you can use. And yes, we have the Office for Civil Rights, but that to me, you don't lead through memos. You lead through capacity building. So if you go to ed.gov, you'll see one of the three buttons that we have there. Tools to address this. And, you know, there were leaders that were nervous about jumping into this, because it was such a very, it was a volatile conversation time. And, you know, as you know, many people lost their positions because of it. But there were leaders that took it as an opportunity to develop an environment of discourse that brought different perspectives and modeled respect on how to do it. I'll give one example. I visited Dartmouth University because I heard they were doing something right. They were doing a lot right, but they were doing something right in this space. They were doing something right in this space. And I talked to the president there. And I asked her, so what's going on over there? Why am I hearing, you know, across the country, I was hearing a lot of complaints, right? This university, kids were feeling unsafe. I visited universities where students were telling me that they felt unsafe. And we needed to promote what's working. So I visited Dartmouth. I talked to students. I talked to professors. And I talked to the president. Each of them were engaged in what they call now Dartmouth Dialogues, where they don't skirt the issue. They talk about it. They model different opinions. And they agree to have civil discourse and to model it for their Dartmouth community. As imperfect as any system will be, they were the closest to embracing this opportunity and doing it in a way that allows different perspectives. And there were different perspectives. When I met with the president and I met with students, they didn't all agree with her. And some of the students communicated that during that meeting. But they did it in a way that showed respect. And the way we want all of our, not only our youth, but adults to interact when they disagree. So it's difficult. There are leaders right now that are afraid to get in front of it. But I do believe it's our responsibility as educators and as education leaders to not shy away from that, but to use it as an opportunity to bring students together and to listen to different exchange and nurture an inclusive environment at a time when DEI programs are being abandoned. We need to be more proactive about inclusivity and respecting different opinions. I think you're absolutely right because, I mean, you know, our system of government is, it's a separated power system. It's actually inherently conflictual. So there is going to be debate. That's how it's set up. There's nothing wrong with debate or disagreement. This is the defense of our constitutional system. But it does matter how we debate and how we disagree, right? You know, I always said freedom of speech is really important. I mean, this country is the best experiment. And it's designed to have that balance. But we have to do it in a way, protect the safety of students. You can have freedom of speech and protect student safety. And I think what I heard from students is, higher education students is, you know, it's okay to have disagreement. It's not okay to feel threatened or unsafe on my learning campus. You know, as a father, I wouldn't want to send my child to a campus and worry that my child can't go from, you know, the dorm to the lecture hall because there's someone that's threatening their safety. And we had students experiencing that. And to me, that's a black and white issue. We need to protect our students, save learning environments. And we should promote students expressing their thoughts, but just they are students. We have to show them how it could be done in a way that protects the safety of universities, especially at this time when violence on campuses have become almost normalized in this country. That's another issue that we have to continue to work on. Right. Well, we have one more question. Molly from Massachusetts asks, how has social media and the shift to digital information changed your mission? You know, the mission hasn't changed. The delivery method has, right? Helping children reach their God-given potential, regardless of race, place where they live, whether they were born into wealth or not, that is still the mission. How we use technology and the advancement in technology becomes quickly a conversation about equity. If whether it's artificial intelligence or the use of social media, if that's the currency of communication and business today and tomorrow, and it's unevenly spread, I am perpetuating gaps. The key thing is to create guardrails that protect children and so number one, creating guardrails that protect children unlike what we did in the 90s when the internet came out. It was a free-for-all. So create guardrails, help students use the tools for good, protect them with the risks, whether that's misinformation, some of the vulgarity or some of the bad uses of it. So that's critical to it. Make sure that there's access, equal access, but also make sure that the educators that are working with students have the capacity to understand how to utilize it for good and for learning. That has been inequitable too. So I'll give you a quick example and it's more of a rudimentary example, but you could extrapolate it for AI, you could extrapolate it for the use of social media to brand or to become a business person. When I was commissioner of education four years ago today, what happened? March 12th, everything shut down. So I remember leaving the Department of Education seeing a colleague of mine and saying, hey, I'll see you in a couple of weeks. I never returned to that building because I got a new job six months later. So we walked out of that building. We were knee-deep in COVID. And one of the darkest moments professionally and personally for me was those weeks when I was on a call daily with the governor and other commissioners and we were hearing what was happening in New York, the epicenter. And I mean, it was real, it was scary. So my task right away was to do two things, make sure kids are eating and make sure they have technology so they can continue learning. So we used the bus routes to feed kids and we got food out there. And then we worked with philanthropy and partners to get laptops for every kid in the state and work on hotspots. Remember, we were handing out hotspots. So I remember about four weeks into the pandemic when the lights returned off, schools were shut down. Before we got the laptops in, I called the superintendent of a very wealthy district by the coast. And I said, how's it going? And he said, Mr. Commissioner, you know, we have, all of our kids have one-to-one devices. They come from homes where they all have broadband, you know, Wi-Fi. We have state-of-the-art curriculum online already. We did that about five or 10 years ago. And thankfully, many of our students have a parent that can stay home. I'm like, good for you. I'm glad to hear that's working. So there really wasn't a missing of the beat. I called another district, predominantly free and reduced lunch, high title one, four weeks, same day I called. I called that superintendent and said, how's it going? She goes, we're still trying to locate 25% of our kids. Instant. The gap was made worse. And then that went on. That went on. So I bring that point up to illustrate where we are with artificial intelligence, the embracing of the currency of communication of our students today. We have to embrace it, or else we're going to do what happened the first four weeks of the pandemic. Some kids are going to get it. They're going to be more marketable. They're going to have skills to navigate the 21st century. And other kids are going to be stuck with the abacuses. It's on us to embrace it, learn about it. We fear something in proportion to our ignorance of it. Learn about it and figure out how we can make sure that all students have equitable access, not only to the inputs of it, but to what it could bring. It is that, you know, as a father of two teenagers right now, my son is studying music production, social media, and marketing is how he's getting his name out there. I get how that works, and we have to evolve. Our systems have to evolve to meet our students, because they're going to do it with or without us. So I think, you know, the message there for me is we need to embrace it and learn how to use it for good, set some guardrails to protect our students, and make sure that all of our educators have similar access to capacity building so that they can use it in their classrooms. Because the potential is actually remarkable, right? We had ministers of education from, I think, 28 countries in D.C. last year, even China was here. So education is diplomacy, folks. So the minister of education from China was here, and Australia, and England, and we were talking, and AI became a really big topic. As a matter of fact, we're meeting in Singapore in April, and one of the topics is AI. And they're looking to us. What are you doing? They know that the president convened a group. They know that there's movement here. So we have to keep up, or else our kids internationally won't be as competitive. Yeah. It's an exciting time. It is an exciting time. Well, thank you so much, Secretary Cardona, for joining us this evening. To everyone who joined us, we have a lot of K-12 educator resources, our Civics for All of Us program, our docs teach, and it's all on archives.gov. So we are part of the Civic Renaissance here at the National Archives. I love it. So I invite you to check that out as well. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your conversation about...