Teaching Civic Action

The article, Educating the "Good" Citizen: Political Choices and Pedagogical Goals, by Joel Westheimer, is pretty interesting. In the introduction leading up the the three kinds of citizens, there are a lot of quotes from higher ups, such as, Albert Shanker, George W. Bush, Paulo Freire, and Bill Bennett. Each of their quotations takes seriously the idea that schools are essential for democracy. Democracy, to me, involves social equality, where the the majority of a groups members have a say. Pedagogic skills are vital for democracy. In the rest of my essay I will discuss the three kinds of citizens, The Personally Responsible Citizen, The Participatory Citizen, and the Justice-oriented Citizen. I will conclude with how we can take these ideals and use them here at Hsinchu International School.
There are three different kinds of citizens, according to Joel Westheimer. The first citizen is the personally responsible citizen, who acts responsibly in his/her community, works and pays taxes, obeys laws, volunteers and gives blood. This kind of citizen would be one who contributes food to a food drive. The second citizen is the participatory citizen, who is an active member of community organizations, organizes community efforts, knows their government, and knows strategies for accomplishing tasks. This type of citizen would organize a food drive, as opposed to contributing food. The last, but not the least, type of citizen is the justice-oriented citizen, who critically assesses social, political, and economic structures beyond surface causes. They address areas of injustice. These citizens explore why people are hungry and then go to the root cause of this hunger and try to solve it. After learning about these three types of citizens I have come to the conclusion that not one of these citizens is more superior than the other. I think they all have their role in society, and if everyone was a personally responsible citizen and we didn't have a justice-oriented citizen, things would be very chaotic. I think its great that we have some people who are willing to give blood or volunteer. It's also nice to see that we have individuals trying to make a difference and settle issues of injustice. We need all three of these citizens in order to have a smoothly running society.
This leads me to the question, "How can we take these ideals about the three types of citizens, and the idea that schools are essential for democracy, and come up with ways that they will work here at Hsinchu International School?" I agree with the notion that schools are essential for democracy. Education plays a big role in society today, and if appropriately run, can create a lot of good. I also agree with Bill Bennett's comment about democracy in schools. He said, "A democracy depends on schools that help to foster a kind of character which respects the law and ... respects the value of the individual." I believe this is something HIS tries very hard to do. The value of each individual in this school is respected, and no one person is better than another. We have a communal atmosphere, which I find very cool. I think it is important that we have students that are aware of the world around them, and want to make a difference. Like I said before, having a combination of these "good" citizens, is very important. Community service is a big part of HIS, or at least has been in the past. I think there should be a curriculum behind it though that has requirements and other necessary information. community service to me is indispensable. However, individuals should not be forced to do community service. I think good citizens are people who will do community service related activities without being told to do it. They will do it out of the kindness of their heart. I thought the statistics provided in the article by the National Center for Education were very intriguing. 83% of high schools currently offer community-service opportunities, compared with 27% in 1984. This is a big improvement and shows that either people are becoming more aware of the circumstances around them, or there is a outside force (parent, teacher, college admissions office) whispering in your ear that you must do community service in order to be a "good" citizen, or get accepted to a university. I think HIS should have more long term community service projects that make a difference. I would really like to see our school do habitat for humanity because I have heard so many good things about it. It would be amazing to go overseas and help build houses for the underprivileged.
In conclusion, I thought the article was pretty interesting. It's true that schools and education are crucial for democracy. In order to have a society that flows we need to have each type of citizen. We can't all be personally responsible citizens, because then we wouldn't be making that big of difference. We need to organize food drives, and explore why people are hungry, instead of just contributing food to a food drive. HIS is a good school that is doing a lot of things right. If a community service curriculum is designed and more long term community service projects, such as habitat for humanity, are available, I really think this school will thrive.

No Longer Conventional

I feel that the article by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times, about Innovation and making a difference, is very interesting. I think it is great that there are people out there who are taking the initiative to spark change. There are many alternative energy sources that are more environmentally friendly that have the same impact. Instead of using up all of our natural resources, such as Carbon-based fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, we should look to create new sources of energy. Nuclear energy, wind and solar energy, geothermal energy and biofuels are just a few of the alternatives. I really like how the two American woman are touring around India trying to promote their eco-friendly car, and let people know that Global Warming is a serious issue. Friedman seems to be very optimistic about what Howe and Ringwald are doing and I think this is made obvious in his second to last paragraph.

"After a year of watching adults engage in devastating recklessness in the financial markets and depressing fecklessness in the global climate talks, it’s refreshing to know that the world keeps minting idealistic young people who are not waiting for governments to act, but are starting their own projects and driving innovation."

After reading Friedman's article I, too, feel optimistic. I know there are good citizens out there who want to make a difference, including myself. I will now share my thoughts on how HIS could have less of a carbon footprint.

I want to start off by defining what, exactly, a carbon footprint is. A carbon footprint is “the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product."

With this in mind, I feel that our first step is to determine the size of our carbon footprint. It is hard to come up with ways to fix something if you don't know what you need to fix. As a school, we have to come up with ways in which we are hurting the environment. After we get a list of things that we can fix we can start talking about how we can change. Obviously, there is way too much CO2 being emitted, which means carpooling is a good alternative to everyone driving places. If we have to pollute the world it is best to do so in small portions. The grade 10's seem to be working on getting a green roof for our school which is a brilliant idea. It will say good things about our school, and it will help lessen our carbon footprint. I'll leave it at that for now. But again, we have to determine the size of our carbon footprint before we can start making changes to make the world, and HIS community, a better place to live.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15friedman.html
http://www.indiaclimatesolutions.com/node/27

Testing the so-called Binary

Today was cross-dressing day at HIS. A small majority of the kids actually participated, which leads me to wonder, why? Are the kids who chose not to cross dress scared of how others will react? Do they feel uncomfortable blurring binary lines? Did they think it was a joke and we should never dress like the opposite sex?

I'm sure a lot of these questions arose in each individual who chose not to dress up. To me, I think cross-dress day is fun. It is a time where cultural taboos are not important. Is it healthy? I'm not really sure how to answer this. I mean, sure it might be important to see the world from another perspective, in my case, as a girl, but I don't think it is necessary. It is definitely easier for girls to dress as guys, as we saw today. Girls seem to transgress the binary line without much cultural or social attention. Guys on the other hand are easily noticed and laughed at.

Today's society is patriarchal, which means the man is, essentially, in charge, or dominant. For a guy to cross-dress involves a downgrade of social status, where as a girl cross-dressing entails a considerable rise in social status. Also, there are far more ways to look like a girl than there are ways to look like a guy. Girls have nail polish, earrings, make-up, rings, stockings, bracelets, hair bands, hair ties, necklaces, and many other necessities. Guys? Guys tend to keep it simple, which makes it easier for a girl to portray a them.

I thought cross-dress day went pretty good. The trip to 7-11 was interesting. I was reading Aled's blog entry earlier and I saw that he mentioned how people just laughed. I wonder if we would have kept a serious composure if the people on the street would have laughed. Because, I mean, we were joking around and giving people reasons to laugh. If we acted serious, and were not videotaping it, would people have responded the same way? Cross-dressing raises a lot of issues, and its interesting to see how people react. I thought today was fun, and seemed to bring everyone together, as a communal group.

9 Ideas for Innovation

No. 1: Spur greater parental involvement.
No. 2: Make schools smaller.
No. 3: Utilize community service to foster civic engagement.
No. 4: Teach civics effectively in schools.
No. 5: Fund extracurricular activities.
No. 6: Model a high school on a community.
No. 7: Create opportunities for meaningful youth contribution.
No. 8: Establish mentoring programs that work.
No. 9: Ask youth for solutions.

I believe that these 9 strategies are very important for creating an educational system that is successful. I look at HIS and I see a lot of these strategies being used, although some of them could get a little more attention. I will start from No.1 and work my way down the list to No. 9. Parental involvement with the school is very important. Teachers should be able to communicate with the parents and update them with important information. I think the system that schools are developing to allow this transfer of ideas is a very good idea. Both teachers and parents are very busy people and can seldom find time to converse. This voice messaging system is very convenient and can be used whenever.
Having a smaller school definitely has benefits. You are able to form better relationships with your teachers, which makes the environment a better place, as long as you like your teachers. At a smaller school you are not a number. Everyone knows you and you can be made to feel more special. It is easier to get involved in school plays or the Student Representative Council. Kids can excel in a smaller classroom atmosphere where more hands on teaching is applied, as opposed to a 50 minute lecture.
Community service, Extracurriculars, and teaching civics effectively are also crucial for getting kids involved at school. All three involve students getting together and working on something: All with the same goal in mind. I think it is important for schools to fund extracurricular activities because parents already pay so much money as it is for their child's education. Some kids are forced to skip an extracurricular activity because their parents can't afford it. For example, in the US, lacrosse is an extremely expensive sport to play if you were to buy all the appropriate equipment. My friend wanted to play lacrosse but his parents didn't feel like paying upwards of 500 US dollars for all the gear. If schools assisted in buying the equipment, there would be a lot more involvement, and social civics would increase.
Creating opportunities for youth contribution and asking youth for solutions are two of the most important strategies, I feel, any school can do. The educational system all starts with the kids. If the kids are happy, chances are the teachers will be happy because the cheerful behavior will rub off on them. If schools try hard to create opportunities for everyone, more kids will feel special, which in turn raises the level of happiness. I think every child should have the option to participate in something that interests them, no matter what that may be. Asking youth for solutions and respecting student rights and wishes is very important. I feel that this strategy is one that HIS needs to work on. Lately, a lot of new policies and rules have been put in place that a lot of students disagree with. If this continues, school spirit will fall, students will stop participating in class, and no one will want to come to school anymore. Participation and Social civics will only increase if everyone is happy! The students and teachers must come to a consensus!
Overall, I think these strategies are very good ideas and will spark Innovation and creativity. It starts from the child, then to the teachers, and then to the parents. If everyone is happy, the environment will thrive and the possibilities are endless!