Posted on 10/15/2011 7:33:32 PM PDT by decimon
After more than 24 years in the U.S. Supreme Court, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor now strives to make civics and government more interesting for young children than it was for her growing up in El Paso, Texas.
“I was so sick of learning about Stephen F. Austin,” she said Saturday inside a University of Chicago lecture hall, referring to the man after whom the Texas capital city is named. “All they teach in Texas is Texas!”
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O’Connor argued that young people need to be better informed about the workings of their own government. To that end, she said, she helped develop iCivics.org, a web-based project combining the stimuli of computer games with basic information about U.S. government.
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(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Yes- when I was a child, we studied Texas history for the first 7 years, and began American history in the 8th grade. Seemed good to me—Texas has a very interesting history..........
with all due respect Justice O’Connor, it’s been a while since you attended school.
Weird that she grew up on a ranch in Texas. We’ve always been told that she grew up on a ranch in Arizona. Oh well, she probably grew up on a ranch somewhere. Montana maybe.
Aww... she needs a hobby. Her husband is in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. He doesn’t even recognize her or remember that they were married, anymore. At least she is doing something more interesting than advocating for AARP. :)
Now they spend 7 years learning about Masa Musa andthen the next 5 reviewing the accomplishments of famous Chicanos (there being only 2, Ricky Valenzuela and Cesar Chavez).
Sorry to sound rude, but in my primary school (somewhere at the back of beyond) in Africa, we were already learning about World history in the fourth year.
I think 7 years is too long to spend on Texas history and I think it explains why Americans lack a lot of basic knowledge about the rest of the World. I mean, if you only start learning about US history in the 8th grade, how much time do you devote to World history?
Hey—I went to grade school when God was still a child. I’m sure things have changed since then—that’s just the was it was in the small school district I attended.
That was before there was an NEA to tell us how to do things.
Funnily enough, we were taught to read well, think things through, and question what we were told. Surprising how much success my classmates attained......................
Too bad she seemed uneducated as a supreme Court justice—lacking understanding of the written Constitution-and how a few good men said it ought be understood according to the meaning of the terms used—as they were understood when adopted. How “metaphysical refinements” were ‘out of place’ .
Thus according to men like James Madison , Thomas Jefferson,James Wilson, Joseph Story, Thomas Cooley David Brewer ,and others I have read some of her metaphysical refinement called the endorsement test. That construct of the latter day Court not related to the Constitution she has amended. ... According to a few historic men we ought abandon her contribution to the way the Court decides cases and get back to defending the Constitution and honoring the Oath administered.
I think you are right.
What about Ricky Ricardo, or did marrying a red-headed comedienne ruin his street cred?
Ricardo was Cuban. You almost never see the California crowd accepting the idea that Cubans are Hispanic.
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