How should civic responsibility be taught at schools? It is an important topic that is hard to teach, because there is so many different aspects on what kind of responsibility people should have that is "right" Here's the summary of an article, Educating the "Good" Citizen: Political Choices and Pedagogical Goals, written by Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne.
The article begins with the idea of promoting community service. The amount of problems would reduce when the people of the community all have the responsibility to their habitat. Beside picking up trash and littering can help cleaning up the streets, services such as donating blood can also show some love to the citizens.
There are three types of "good" citizens; participatory citizen, justice oriented citizen, and citizenship without politics. Participatory citizens are those who participate in activities. By participating events can not only create more interaction between people but also carry on the culture. Remember, most of the culture is carried on by different activities and events. Justice oriented citizens are the ones that have justice in their hearts. We can not expect to have police everywhere in the town so, in order to have a city with order, it requires the citizens to help correct one another. Having citizens without politics is also a positive thing. Politics can sometimes make people hate each other. For example in Taiwan, some extreme nationalists would treat people that support different parties in different manner. If the people in the community can live without politics, it could avoid a lot of unfair treatment.
So, after reading all those great ideas, what would be the best strategy for teaching civic responsibility at H.I.S? I would say building good relationship between teachers and students would automatically let the students chose to have civic responsibility. There's no way one could have one another to do something by simply "teaching" In order to have the students get their actions going, they must care about the community first.
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4 comments:
Positive relationship between students and teachers is, indeed, very important. I think the teachers should trust students more and listen to voices from "upper graders" more. I also think that communication between and the ability to listen to each other are also important.
Building a good relationship between the teachers and students is important, but we also need trust!
It is really hard to get those people who don't care to care! I think the teachers and the seniors need to set an example first! If the teachers doesn't even care, then the students won't too!
Hey Eugene. I'm not going to comment on your response to the article because I find that I'm repeating myself for each blog. Instead, I will comment on your strategy for teaching civic responsibility at HIS. Building relationships with teachers is very important! When you have a good relationship with your teacher, it, for some reason makes you want to learn. For example, Rob just came to HIS, and instantly I fell in love with him. (please don't take that the wrong way, and if for some reason Rob reads this..ah jeez) His personality and way of teaching really inspires me to want to learn. I enjoy going to his class. This is just one example of how having a close relationship with your teachers can help benefit you in the classroom. It will also raise the level of school spirit. Grant, in my opinion, really held this school together. His personality and charisma definitely drew a lot of people close to him. Having someone in charge that is influential and caring is crucial for a school environment to thrive. I like how you think Eugene!
Haha, have you ever gotten in a taxi before and the driver just starts talking about politics non stop? It's really funny, but a bit annoying at the same time even if you're on their side politics-wise. But there's always a legal power, and the way a city/country/the world has to run, so having politics is unavoidable.
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