An Independence Day Summer Preview!

0:03 Hello and welcome to our 2nd of July special here at the Bill of Rights Institute. Happy Independence Day! My name is Kirk Higgins. I’m the Senior Manager of Content here at the Institute and I’m joined by my colleague. I’m Rachel Davison Humphrey, Director of Outreach here at the Bill of Rights Institute in Arlington, Virginia. That’s right and we’re excited to come to you in what I always consider to be the middle

0:25 of the summer right here around Middle of the summer right here on Independence Day on July 2nd to share with you what we’re doing here at the Institute, how we’re gearing up for the fall like I’m sure many of you are right now, and just to talk quickly about all the exciting things we have going on. Yeah, it’s been quite a semester, unlike I would say any semester in my lifetime, especially as someone who works in the education field. And so we wanted to take

0:48 a moment to take a breath, talk a little bit about this moment, talk a little bit about what the 2nd and the 4th of July are for and mean, and then tell you a little bit about what we’re busy going to be doing over the summer, because it’s going to be a very busy summer for us, as I’m sure it will be for many of you. Absolutely, and yeah, we’re coming to you on the 2nd, probably because we’re hoping most of you will be taking the

1:10 4th to just kind of unplug and disconnect, but the 2nd of July actually has some pretty cool historical significance. So it was actually on the 2nd of July that the Continental Congress in 1776 voted for independence and it was on this day independence. that John Adams noted in a letter to Abigail that it would be celebrated with pomp and illuminations and that this would be the day, not the fourth. The fourth

1:33 was the day that the document was actually finalized and printed, that document being the Declaration of Independence, and it becomes the day now that we memorialize. But the second has a claim to that as well. has claimed that maybe even a stronger claim. even a stronger claim. So we’re putting out our video. on July 2nd, not July So we’re putting out our video, our summer special Has a claim to that, maybe 4th. July 4th is also a Saturday this year. That’s right. So Rachel, you mentioned,

1:56 you know, we had a busy semester. We’re having a busy summer and then it’s going to be a really busy fall with everything that’s going on in the country right now and an election just around the corner. There’s a lot on everyone’s plate. There is and there’s been a lot going on in the country. So, I mean, our summer is unlike many summers, I think, that teachers have had. is unlike many summers I think that that teachers have had in the past so all your normal

2:18 work any like normal secondary jobs you may have had are looking very different your planning for your semester is probably looking really different because there’s still a lot of ambiguity about what even the fall semester is going to look like for a lot of districts and there’s going to be the work of helping your students you know

2:38 navigate everything that’s happened since March right like there have been there’s been such a civic moment and what what better way to celebrate that civic moment than on the 2nd and 4th of July this this incredible energy around justice this incredible energy

3:00 around our institutions and our communities and supporting one another it’s really been I mean as as tragic as many of the things It’s really been, I mean, as tragic as many of the things that have happened, there’s been a lot of really powerfully inspiring civic actions that have taken place.