Former Justice O'Connor: Flawed education leaving Americans ignorant of government

[usregimechange]

Public schools in America have largely abandoned teaching civics and history, leaving a public largely ignorant of government and young people "disengaged from our civic life," according to retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

"Rather than being revamped, civics education has been all but removed from our public schools," O'Connor told a packed house at Town Hall Seattle on Monday.

Tests measure students' levels of achievement in mathematics, science and reading "but not on civics or history," added the first woman to serve on the high court.

O'Connor is a Westerner, raised on a ranch in Arizona and educated at Stanford where she took a class from famed writer-conservationist Wallace Stegner. Offered only legal secretary positions when she graduated from law school, she became a key swing vote on a closely divided Supreme Court. She stressed the values of "consensus-building, consensus and civility" in her Monday speech.

O'Connor noted that "the civic mission" was the very reason why America's public schools were founded in the first place. "(Thomas) Jefferson believed only an educated citizenry would recognize and thwart tyranny," she said.

http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/410191_joel15.html


Echoing Justice Souter...

The republic "can be lost, it is being lost, it is lost, if it is not understood."

[Zoeisright]

1. And what is Ms. O'Connor's excuse?

She certainly showed a lack of civics knowledge when she put Bush in the Oval Office.

[jaysunb]

3. Amen....

I badly want to like and respect this woman, but I just can't get 2000 out of my head.

[usregimechange]

4. I was posting it because I respect what she and Justice Souter are saying

[DavidDvorkin]

2. I don't want to hear anything she has to say

after her role in the 2000 election.

[enlightenment]

5. So, let's just ignore the fact that she is RIGHT.

As they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[Beartracks]

6. This is an important thing to note:

"Jefferson believed only an educated citizenry would recognize and thwart tyranny."

[MichiganVote]

7. Agree. But we don't have God in school, prayers, too much sex ed., not enuf sex ed.,

too many standards, not enough standards, too few hours, too many, the lunches suck, the food program is needed for at risk kids, the curriculums are too narrow-too broad, the school policies are draconian, why don't schools do more about bullies? Dress codes are needed, dress codes segregate, testing is ridiculous, not enuf testing to put kids on the right track, rigorous expectations, lax instruction, free transportation to and from school, need aides on the buses for kids who don't behave, classes too large, education too expensive, rotten teachers, great teachers, teachers cost too much and should work for free, mandates, no mandates, science, no science, arts are underfunded, sports are over funded....yada,yada,yada...

Here's a tip. Public schools are still local. When was the last time you heard of a Supreme Court Justice visit a school board meeting?

When was the last time you went to a school board meeting?

[Maccagirl]

8. I want Sandra Day O'Connor to explain why she and her

fellow conservatives have always done everything in their power to undermine public education.

[jberryhill]

10. "undermind"

If that was intentional, it was good.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Candidate GWBush did not know Medicare was a government program. nt

[MadHound]

11. I know what a huge part of the problem

NCLB and all the goddamn testing. There is so much emphasis being put on math, reading, writing and science that there is little time left over for Social Studies. Being a middle school teacher, I live this every single day, my students are coming in ill prepared and clueless about history and such. This is because elementary teachers have been forced into a curriculum that deals with only the subjects that are validated by tests, everything else falls by the wayside. Thus, much of what I do the first month or so is playing catch up.

Yet O'Connor's solution is still more testing. What fucking madness! This testing insanity is doing a huge disservice to an entire generation of students, which we will all pay for in short order. Rather than this testing mania we need to let educators determine what is needed, let teachers teach rather than leaving curriculum and such decisions in the hands of politicians and people with their own agenda.

[Golden Raisin]

12. An uneducated or under-educated

electorate is the neocon's and tyrant's delight. $800,000,000,000,000 gazillion dollars for unlimited missiles, stealth bombers, etal. and we have a populace that can't identify Iraq, France or Missouri on a map. And by the way, Justice O'Connor, fuck you for your part in incoronating Bush and Cheney and paving the way for 8 years of raping the Constitution that you were supposed to uphold.

[usregimechange]

13. I wonder if she regrets Bush v. Gore...

[hvn_nbr_2]

14. This is the same ex-Supreme who thought that the Supremes were empowered to choose presidents? nt