After more than 24 years in the U.S. Supreme Court, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor now strives to make civics and government more interesting for young children than it was for her growing up in El Paso, Texas.

“I was so sick of learning about Stephen F. Austin,” she said Saturday inside a University of Chicago lecture hall, referring to the man after whom the Texas capital city is named. “All they teach in Texas is Texas!”

O’Connor headlined a Chicago Ideas Week panel about educational reform that was hosted by CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien. The former Supreme Court justice joined a group of education professionals to share views on how the country’s educational system can be revamped.