Andrew Grace Associates

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor finds that avatars can teach American democracy. Justice O'Connor is collaborating with Arizona State University and Georgetown University Law Center to create the website www.ourcourts.org. This site will combine interactive civics lessons for 7th, 8th and 9th graders and will be part educational and part entertainment.

This project of Justice O'Connor's illustrates her creative approach to solving a "big picture" concern. She is passionate about preserving an independent judiciary and a strong constitutional democracy.

Justice O'Connor identified school children, not the branches of government, as critical to addressing this concern. Rather than criticize the current educational system, the public's lack of basic government knowledge and the lack of educational funding, she chose to use the computer (even though she did not consider herself a computer expert) and learned new methods to educate others in a "hands on" approach.

The avatars on the website will face problems and confront constitutional issues. First Amendment issues, for example, will focus on school censorship of speech in student publications and on T-shirts.

The site is under development but a monkey hangs in the tree and four young avatars wait to make arguments and to exercise the legal system to win the game.