Citizenship

When discussing education, citizen education was not something I would have thought of in all honesty. I remember being told how important Pythagoras Theorem would be and how difficult it would be if I didn’t understand the math, or if I wasn’t able to write an essay on Romeo and Juliet. The importance of citizenship was never discussed in further detail. 

However, growing up in Avonlea there would be many things we did around town that would be part of good citizenship and something that became the norm every year, so we practiced it without even knowing it. All the time. According to Joel Westheimer’s article, we often practiced being The Personally Responsible Citizen who “acts responsibly in his/her community” (page 3). For us, this would include:

-Grade six trash pick up

-Grade 7 & 8 food drive

-Christmas fundraisers to help those who couldn’t afford presents

-Grade 12 bottle drive/trash pick up

-Many more things

I remember there being so much more in terms of community in my small town (or sense of community). The small class sizes made it much easier for everyone to get involved and feel like they were making a difference. In Regina, I remember doing food drives, blood donations, etc. but, the difference is, the students had a choice whether or not they wanted to do it. However, being in a city school had me open my eyes to the different diversity that there is in our society. Since that’s the case, I remember practicing being the Justice Oriented Citizen. This may be the classes I took and whose classes I was able to get into, but my teachers were sure to advocate for human rights, being mistreated in society, etc. Ultimately, that’s why I am in education today, as I wanted to change the world in one way or another and I found the best way to do that, would be to educate.

I believe that learning how to be a good citizen is crucial, but so is having the connection. Everything we learn in school should be important and making that connection is what makes it important. All of the types of citizenship that Joel mentions in his article are very crucial to learn because education is not the only thing a person needs to make it through life, being a decent human-being goes along way as well.