The jurist was visibly joyful while kicking off the Center’s Constitution Day by leading 224 students from Philadelphia’s Constitution High School in a rousing reading of the Preamble. They recited it three times. “Three times makes [it] perfect,” she said, placing emphasis on youth memorizing the nation’s founding document by heart.
“The Constitution articulates our democratic system and our fundamental rights, but it is “We The People” who guarantee their survival,” she said.
O’Connor spoke of a survey conducted by University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center called, “How Well do Americans Understand the Constitution?”
According to this national telephone survey conducted among 1,230 adults between Sept. 6 and Sept. 13; just 38 percent of respondents could name all three branches of the U.S. government (the executive, legislative, and judicial branches), and a third, 33 percent, couldn’t correctly name any of the branches.
“Knowledge of our system of government is not handed down through the gene pool. It must be learned by each new generation,” said O’Connor. She introduced ICivics (www.icivics.org), a Web-based program that she founded to reinvigorate civic learning for students across the nation.
“I keep a copy of our Constitution in my purse all the time,” O’Connor told the new citizens and the audience laughed enthusiastically.
“You learned a lot more than many of our young people and United States is a nation of immigrants,” she told them.
O’Connor encouraged the new Americans to cherish what they have achieved in becoming a U.S. citizen and living by the values set out by the Constitution.
The first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, O’Connor served as an associate justice from 1981 until her retirement in 2006.
President and CEO of the National Constitution Center David Eisner also attended the Constitution Day celebration. The events were broadcast to students around the country.
