Background | Classroom applications | Internet resources | Appendix
Chapter
4
Individual Responsibilities and Citizenship
By Fredricka L. Stoller
In civic education curricula, citizenship and individual responsibilities is an important theme. Discussions about the role of citizen participation at local, state, and national levels usually lead to provocative questions such as these: What does it mean to be a good citizen? What is the importance of being an informed citizen? To what extent should citizens participate in society and politics? Recently, questions about world citizenship and individual responsibilities--to ensure a safe and sane world--have been raised. In this lesson, students will explore select aspects of this theme. While discussing citizenship and individual responsibilities, students will learn associated vocabulary and concepts. As a result of this content-based lesson, students will not only improve their language skills, but they will also gain knowledge about this important and timely theme. The lesson outlined here can be used by teachers in a variety of ways: They can use it as a single, stand-alone lesson; they can design a series of connected lessons that explore the theme in more detail; or they can develop a thematic unit that examines the theme from a variety of perspectives over a longer period of time. These lesson plan ideas are meant to serve as a springboard for teachers interested in introducing the theme of citizenship and individual responsibilities to their students.
Discussions of citizenship and the responsibilities that accompany it are common in civic education curricula. An exploration of these topics can take on many dimensions, though it is important for students to understand, early on, that being a citizen is not simply limited to having a passport from the country in which one is born, or being a resident of a particular city, state, or country. Citizenship implies certain rights (e.g., legal, political, social); it also implies responsibilities, including placing the well-being, or common good, of society before private and personal interests.
When exploring citizenship and individual responsibilities, classroom teachers can shape lessons to examine a range of perspectives. Some teachers interested in this topic divide responsibilities into two areas: personal and civic. Personal responsibilities include taking care of oneself, accepting responsibility for the consequences of one’s actions, taking advantage of opportunities to become educated, and fulfilling responsibilities to one’s family, friends, and neighbors. Civic responsibilities, on the other hand, comprise obeying laws, respecting the rights and opinions of others, paying taxes, serving in the military, voting, and being informed and attentive to the needs of one’s community and nation. Civic responsibility can also include the obligation to be honest, compassionate, tolerant, fair, trustworthy, respectful, open minded, and open to negotiation and compromise.
Other discussions of responsible citizenship center around the issue of participation in society at local, state, and national levels. Responsible citizens are often said to be active socially and politically. Social activity might entail joining citizens’ groups that are devoted to solving societal problems, such as homelessness, race relations, or neighborhood crime; social activity could also involve volunteering in a local hospital, school, homeless shelter, or senior citizens’ home. Political activity is quite different from social activity. Students need to understand that political activity usually refers to more than the simple act of voting in periodic elections. It might entail talking about public issues; writing letters to public officials; presenting a problem to a governmental council; staying informed about important issues by reading the newspaper, listening to television news, or attending public meetings; or getting involved in a political campaign.
Recent discussions of responsible citizenship have taken on new dimensions and have expanded to include the concept of worldwide citizenship. As international travel, communication, and exchanges have become easier and more common, citizens of different countries are becoming more dependent upon one another. This interdependence has given birth to the notion of world citizenship, that is, being a citizen of the world. In general, world citizens are concerned about issues that affect all nations and all people, including overpopulation, the mismanagement of natural resources, and pollution. World citizenship, as a new type of citizenship, requires new sets of individual responsibilities.
