Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Gets Into... Video Gaming?

from the didn't-see-that-coming dept

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor made a statement at a conference that I think we can all agree with:

"If someone told me when I retired from court that I'd be talking at a conference about digital gaming, I'd think they'd had one drink too many."

However, not only did she talk at a conference about digital gaming, she's working on a project to create a video game about the court system, to try to make students more informed about the judicial system and some of the difficult decisions it makes. There have been many similar "civic education" video games out there, like the UN video game to teach kids about world hunger and, my personal favorite, a video game to teach kids how to gerrymander voting districts to get political support. It's not clear how successful any of these sorts of games really are, but it's nice to see a former Supreme Court Justice taking an interest in these sorts of things. Though, some might point out that this could be seen as something of a gimmick, and students might just be better served by adding a decent civics curriculum back into school (it's apparently gone thanks to No Child Left Behind).

Filed Under: civics, justice system, sandra day o'connor, video games