American students are getting bombarded with politics. The “1619 Project” tells them America, tainted by slavery, was rotten from its taproot. Civil rights icon Robert Woodson offers a “1776 Initiative” with a more positive tilt. And President Trump hopes to preempt everything by launching his “1776 Commission” charged with promoting “patriotic education."

But what if everyone is being shortsighted?

This is where a distinguished trio of scholars, Independent Research Fellow Morgan E. Hunter and Senior Fellow Williamson M. Evers plus Hoover institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson, have authored the new—and far-reaching—Independent Policy Report, Is It Time for a “490 B.C. Project”? High Schoolers Need to Know Our Classical Heritage. The Report uncovers a far deeper problem: inadequate instruction in the foundation of the humanities and the Greco-Roman civilization that gave birth to them. The consequences of this error, say the authors, could be disastrous.

At this event, Independent Institute Executive Director Dr. Graham H. Walker interviewing Dr. Evers regarding the deep insights and towering achievements of that civilization—valuable in their own right—and how such insights once enabled Americans, who were immersed in the classics, to reach beyond partisan differences by drawing on shared knowledge and lessons from the past.

But as our citizens can do so no longer, something needs to be done—which is why the authors of the report are calling for a “490 B.C. Project.”

Graham H. Walker

Graham H. Walker is Executive Director and Assistant Editor for The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy at the Independent Institute. He received his Ph.D. in public law and government from the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Walker has served as Associate Professor of Politics at Catholic University of America, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Visiting Scholar in Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, NJ), Senior Research Scholar at the Witherspoon Institute, Headmaster at Oaks Christian School, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, President at Patrick Henry College, Legislative Aide to former Congressman David Stockman, and Fellow at the Presidio Institute.

Williamson M. Evers

Williamson M. Evers is a Senior Fellow, Director of the Center on Educational Excellence, and Assistant Editor for The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy at the Independent Institute. Dr. Evers received his Ph.D. degree in political science from Stanford University, and he has served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development from 2007 to 2009; Senior Adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings during 2007; and former Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution. In addition, he was a member of the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education from its beginning in 1999 until it wrapped up in 2014. From July to December 2003, he served in Iraq as Senior Adviser for Education to Administrator L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority.