Before she was a teacher at Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Jennifer Conlon practiced law.
And it’s her knowledge of the law that earned Conlon an award this fall from the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago.
Conlon, of Park Ridge, was presented with the Barbara O’Donnell Award, which is given to high school teachers who integrate law in their curriculum, according to the CRFC.
Conlon teaches social science and government classes at Maine East, where she started her teaching career in 2005. She is also the founder of the school’s civic engagement club, Demon-ocracy, in which students discuss political issues and current events. The club recently developed a website to help students and families easily access information about their municipalities, including the names of their elected officials and government meeting dates.
Q: What was your reaction to receiving this award?
A: I was delighted. I practiced law before I became a teacher and for me, [the award] brings those parts of my life together.
Q: Why did you pursue teaching after practicing law?
A: My mom had taught and loved it, and my sister had gone into teaching. I [tried substitute teaching] and I really liked it, so when I was home with my youngest son, my fourth, I took classes. I decided to pursue teaching and I did my student teaching, and I’ve been doing this full-time ever since.
I think attorneys and teachers have a lot in common. I think we try to advocate for those who can’t always advocate for themselves and build up people to advocate for themselves.
Q: With three other teachers, you helped develop a “news literacy” curriculum that is used in Maine East civics and government classes. How do you teach news literacy?
A: It’s a series of slide decks that ask students to identify something as news, entertainment or information. The second part requires them to look at the news outlet, to evaluate it. Do they verify information? Are they independent? Are they accountable? Then the students ask themselves, “Is this the truth? Do I see the facts in context? Have they been transparent? Do they tell me what they know and what they don’t know? Have they gone to the best source for information?” Then there’s an analysis for sources …. The point of the sequence is to help students analyze information and determine if it is reliable enough to use.
Q: What issues are your students most interested or concerned about today?
A: The issues they are most concerned about are gun violence, immigration and college costs. And they want to know how to get involved.
Q: What is most challenging about teaching civics and government in the era we are living in now?
A: I think it’s hard to compare the pros and cons of issues when there is so much ugly rhetoric. It obscures real policy differences, and it makes government seem more about personalities than about choices and policy. For example, the current rhetoric about immigration is so ugly and demeaning that you can’t just focus right now on what the policy should be, what is a fair and just way to address it. When somebody is characterizing people arriving here as criminal or as threats, there is such a push-back against that view and so it’s harder to talk about what the policy should be. It’s the same with gun control. There is so much characterization that supporters of gun control are wanting to take rights away or limiting the rights of other people. It’s hard to have a conversation about what would be a good policy and what’s possible.