Two-thirds of Americans cannot name a single Supreme Court justice, former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor told the crowd that packed into a Boise State ballroom to hear her Thursday.
About one-third can name the three branches of government. Fewer than one-fifth of high school seniors can explain how citizen participation benefits democracy.
"Less than one-third of eighth-graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and it's right there in the name," she said.
O'Connor touted civics education during her keynote address at the "Transforming America: Women and Leadership in the 21st Century" conference, put on by the Andrus Center for Public Policy. She also described being a female lawyer in the 1950s, and challenged her listeners to help the next generation of leaders reach their goals.
"The more I read and the more I tune in, the more evident it is that our social order experiences a disturbing level of open obliviousness," O'connor said.
That lack of awareness begins in the soonest years of a kid's educating, she said, however frequently proceeds the distance through school and graduate school.
O'connor contended that researching citizenship is all in all as critical for American kids as studying augmentation or how to compose their names.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks For Your Comments