Former Justice Wants More Civics in Schools
April 7th, 2009 by Mike VasilindaFormer US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was at the state capitol Tuesday.
Addressing a rare joint session of the legislature, the first woman to serve on the nation’s highest court recounted statistics that show most people can’t name the three branches of government, but can name at least one of the three stooges. The justice is pushing for more civics education in schools.
“Statistics show there’s a very strong correlation between ignorance and distrust of our government,” O’Connor said. “We must take action to reverse the trend of removing civics from our schools before the cynicism begins to suffocate our democracy.”
The Justice did note Florida is one of the few states that instituted increased civic’s education in middle schools. Since 2006 students must take at least three hours of civics education.
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