Even Lee Atwater supposedly had a deathbed conversion. At least former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor still has a chance to set some things right.
According to yesterday's LA Times, O'Connor was recently in Los Angeles talking up her iCivics program, which she started in 2006 as "Our Courts" after retiring from the highest court in the land.
"It's very disturbing," said O'Connor, 81, the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court. "I want to educate several generations of young people so we won't have the lack of public knowledge we have today."
Thanks, judge. That's real swell of ya. Oh, yeah, and the article goes on to say,
One problem may be a consequence of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which emphasized reading and math instruction with required testing.
"Schools that were including basic social studies education started to reduce the time spent on that subject," said Deborah Genzer, former co-director of the California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. "It's become a dire situation, really, especially at schools that are struggling to get their scores up in English language arts and math and have just cut out other subjects."
Let's see, let's see - who was it again who pushed so hard for No Child Left Behind? Oh, that's right: it was George W. Bush. And how did he get elected to the presidency, again? Oh, that's right: he won the election, 5-4. And who cast the deciding vote in that election, again? Oh, that's right: Sandra Day O'Connor.
And what was the civics lesson we can take away from that election, again? Oh, that's right:
The selection of the president of the United States by the Supreme Court "is limited to the present circumstances."
Nice civics lesson, Justice O'Connor. Thanks for that.