U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaking as the keynoter at a forum on civics education Thursday, stressed the importance of engaging young people of various backgrounds on the topic.
鈥淔or me, civic education is the key to inspiring kids to want to become and stay involved in making a difference,鈥� Sotomayor told the , a daylong event that drew scores of students, educators, policymakers, and others to the Newseum here.
The event was co-sponsored by , the nonprofit group founded by retired Justice Sandra Day O鈥機onnor, which develops popular civics education games for classroom use such as 鈥淒o I Have a Right?鈥�
鈥淚 could think of no better legacy鈥� that O鈥機onnor has left than her work on civics education, Sotomayor said. 鈥淪he鈥檚 done so many other things, she鈥檚 affected so many other areas of the law in such positive ways. But the one that will live the longest is her work on the iCivics organization.鈥�
O鈥機onnor, 87, lives in Arizona now and was not present at the forum.
Sotomayor joined the board of iCivics in 2015. On Thursday, she said she has been leading an effort to make the organization鈥檚 games accessible to English-language learners and to students with reading disabilities.
鈥淲hen you know that at least a third of students in public schools are students struggling with learning English, you understand the importance of this initiative,鈥� the justice said.
Louise Dub茅, the executive director of Cambridge, Mass.-based iCivics, said there would soon be a Spanish-language version of 鈥淒o I Have a Right?鈥�, a game that requires players to determine whether a client has a constitutional right for certain actions.
Moderator Nia-Malika Henderson of CNN asked Sotomayor about news literacy, another theme of the forum.
Sotomayor said that when she was growing up in the Bronx, her parents rarely watched TV news but were avid newspaper readers. Her father read El Diario La Prensa, a Spanish-language paper, while her mother regularly read the tabloid Daily News and New York Post.
鈥淭elevision is soundbites, and soundbites have the danger of cutting off important discussions that require in-depth consideration of issues,鈥� she said.
21st Century Civics
Organizers of the forum sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation that cites a consensus in the field of civic learning about six proven practices.
These include courses on civics, government, law and related topics; classroom deliberation of current controversial issues; service learning; student-led voluntary associations; student voices in schools; and simulations of adult civic roles, such as Model UN and mock trials. The paper says innovation is needed in the field.
鈥淲hat is not in doubt is that civics must be different in the 21st century,鈥� it says, including preparing students for 鈥渁 world of social media instead of printed local newspapers鈥� and engaging them 鈥渢o navigate a polarized society.鈥�
And the report highlighted two states that have put legislative action behind civics education in recent years. In 2010, Florida adopted the Sandra Day O鈥機onnor Civic Education Act, which mandates a middle school civics course and a high-stakes test on the subject. Seventy percent of 7th-graders passed the test in 2017, up from 61 percent when it was introduced in 2014.
The paper also spotlights Illinois, which in August passed a measure that will require high school students to complete a semester-long civics course in the future.
The forum鈥檚 panel discussions featured a wide range of participants. Zac Schroepfer, a student at Georgetown University, recalled when O鈥機onnor visited his Tallahassee, Fla., middle school when he was in 7th grade. 鈥淭hat really educated me about the opportunities I can take part in鈥� to improve public life, he said.
Among several retired politicians who participated in the event, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, was the most blunt. He said that many civics education programs are aimed at high school students, which is 鈥渨ay too late鈥� to be effective.
鈥淔or all you people making funding decisions鈥� about civics programs, he said, 鈥渁im young.鈥�
Sotomayor was asked by one questioner, a student at Woodrow Wilson High School in the District of Columbia, how young people should respond to the toxic political climate, what the student called 鈥渢hese heated times.鈥�
鈥淟isten before you talk,鈥� Sotomayor replied. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what a lot of people don鈥檛 do in these heated times.鈥�