Dr. Tony Simones helps others experience the joy of discovery through civics education

Dr. Tony Simones, Missouri Bar citizenship education director, described his job as teaching Missourians about “the magic of our constitutional system.”

Simones’ main duties involve developing trainings, workshops, and a summer institute for educators to use in their classrooms.

Recognizing that not all teachers have the time or budget to devote to developing these teaching methods, Simones has worked with educators to develop free American Government lesson plans, available at MissouriLawyersHelp.org/freemolessonplans.

He also works with various judges and lawyers, creating presentations they can use when talking with students or the general public.

He’s passionate about the Constitution because it gives rise to important and fascinating issues and debates, Simones said. Helping others better understand constitutional principles prepares the next generation of leaders and citizens.

“It just raises so many essential issues for our country, and what kind of country we’re going to be, what our priorities are going to be,” Simones said. “…It’s important and it’s relevant to our lives.”

Simones tries to instill this message through the Show Me the Constitution competition, a mock congressional hearing where students argue constitutional issues before various lawyers, judges, and teachers in the state. The goal is to help students think critically and creatively about the Constitution, he said.

His love for the Constitution goes far back.

Simones described himself as someone who carved his own path in life.

“Every step of the way has been me charting my own course and not caring where everybody else was expected to go,” Simones said.

When he got to college, he didn’t take the traditional pre-law route, instead majoring in communications and English. In law school, as everyone else fell in love with the law, he fell in love with teaching.  

After he graduated from law school, a few faculty members from the political science department at his university decided to have him to teach some government courses and recommended he join the PhD program, while giving him a stipend and waiving tuition fees. Those three faculty members changed his life that day, Simones said.

“And that’s why, ever since then, every chance I get to help somebody else out, to advance somebody else’s career, to help them to realize their dream, I take it,” Simones said. “And that’s really important to me because of the gift that was given to me …”

After earning his PhD, he started teaching at what is now Missouri State University. His distinctive teaching method, focusing on questions and discussions, encouraged students to think for themselves. It was so different from a traditional lecture that students who weren’t enrolled in his classes would watch from the doorway.

He found success at MSU, winning the governor’s award for teaching excellence. He was nominated twice for the Carnegie Foundation professor of the year award, was promoted, and got tenure.

He next started working at a school in Georgia developing a criminal justice program, then as the director of judicial education for the Missouri Office of State Courts Administrator. It was there he made a connection with the former director of citizen education at the bar.

While there was never a point in his life where he said he wanted to be the director of citizenship education for a bar, Simones said, “I was perfect for the job, and the job was perfect for me.”

Simones now gets to use his experiences teaching the Constitution and government to help teachers across the state do the same in their classrooms. He takes the same methods that brought people in to watch his classes from the hallways and turns them into lessons high school and middle school teachers can use.

Overall, Simones said that his favorite part of his job was how much variety it has.

“If you do the same thing over and over again, even if it is something really cool, it’s going to lose its luster at some point,” Simones said. “But I am always doing something new, there’s always something new coming up.”

Outside of work, Simones said he enjoys working out on the rowing machine and elliptical machine, having a big stack of books and taking an afternoon to go through them, read, think, write, and consider the world. He also enjoys movies and has a movie quote for every situation.