Court Is In Session, And The Game Is On With “Our Courts”
Here are some disturbing statistics from a National Constitution Center survey: more American teenagers know the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air than know the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (94.7% to 2.2%), know which city has the zip code “90210″ than the city in which the U.S. Constitution was written (75% to 25%), and more American teenagers know the star of the motion picture “Titanic” than know the Vice President of the United States (90% to 74%). “Only one-third of Americans can name the three branches of government, but two-thirds can name a judge on American Idol,” said Sandra Day O’Connor during her closing keynote address for last weekend’s 5th annual Games For Change Conference hosted by Parsons The New School For Design. The former Supreme Court Justice took the opportunity to talk about a project she has been working on to change those rather sad facts, an online digital game called “Our Courts”, geared at teaching civics to middle-schoolers.
Acknowledging the educational power of video games, O’Connor worked with University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Paul Gee to create “Our Courts.” The effort is composed of two parts: an online curriculum for educators and an online video game for students to use in their free time. Both services will be free to the public. According to the “Our Courts” website, the game “will create problems that will challenge students to think critically, and debate rationally and respectfully, about important issues of the day in light of the lessons of history.”
“We can’t forget that the primary purpose of public schools in America is to produce citizens who have the skills and knowledge to sustain our form of government,” said O’Connor. “Public education is the only longterm solution to preserving an independent judiciary and constitutional democracy.”