This year, the Supreme Court will decide if California's law banning the sale of violent games to kids is constitutional. Too bad for us that retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor isn't still on the bench.

In an interview on Good Morning America Wednesday, O'Connor extolled the virtues of videogames as a teaching tool for young kids.

"They're fabulous," she told news anchor George Stephanopoulos. "We've had tests done. And the students go up 20 percent in their knowledge by playing those games. It's just incredible."

O'Connor spoke Wednesday at the Games for Change festival in New York.

On Good Morning America, the retired justice bemoaned the decline in civics and history teaching in public schools because of the No Child Left Behind Program and applauded games like Do I Have A Right? that aimed to teach students about government in a fun, accessible way.

"We know also from the Annenberg polls that youngsters in middle school level – sixth, seventh, eighth grade – spend, on the average, 40 hours a week in front of a screen," she said. "If we can capture just part of that time, a little bit of it, to get 'em in front of a computer screen to play these games, they're going to learn."

Sandra Day O'Connor was the first female member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981, she served as justice until her retirement in 2006. In 2009, she launched the website Ourcourts.org, a site that houses games and other activities that aim to teach civics to young Americans.

Photo: littlerottenrobin/Flickr

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