Since her 2006 retirement from the Supreme Court, O'Connor said she has been working to launch iCivics.org, a free online program geared to teach young children about civic responsibility.
After the ceremonies at the Constitution Center, O'Connor stopped by Andrew Jackson Elementary School in South Philadelphia to speak to students about iCivics and swear in the school's 35-member student council in a wood-paneled kindergarten classroom.
Outfitted in a stately lilac jacket, the 81-year old jurist commanded the students to raise their right hands to take their oath and challenged them to engage in the political process.
She echoed remarks from an earlier news conference, where she declared: "This knowledge is not handed down in the gene pool. They [students] don't inherit the knowledge. We have to teach every generation again and again and again what it consists of and how we as citizens can be part of it."
Her tour of the city was far more uneventful than a previous visit on July 4, 2003, when the Constitution Center honored her with its annual Liberty Medal. At that event, she was nearly struck by a heavy beam that fell during the ceremonial drawing of a giant curtain to unveil the center's 40-foot-tall glass main entrance.
Earlier Friday in the center's F.M. Kirby Auditorium, O'Connor joined U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe in administering the oath during the naturalization ceremony for 48 applicants from 18 countries.
One was Johnette Gabrie, a 28-year-old mother of four who emigrated in 2001 from Liberia to escape the violence of the African nation's civil war.
