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.
6 comments:
I also think a long term community service program should be more than only doing community service. Students should really reach out to the community and get in contact with different people, find helpful resources to try to solve some social problems. The school would definitely thrive because of this kind of unique program.
Yes, I totally agree that schools should offer community service opportunities or have community service resources for students. For my senior project, I am going to try to let the school offer community service again next year and maybe even write down places that people can go to do community services!
In the middle of the paragraph, you mentioned big thing about the community service. School is necessarily to offer the program, and take it seriously. This means not making it on the weekend, and take it as a joke.
I like how you introduce the crucial point- three types of good citizen.
and YeS we should have a more organized community service program. If there is a good community service program in school, our school will really be thrived!
Yeah, long term is good. Even though I wasn't in any of the community services this year, I think that like in the previous years, students switched around (animal shelter this week, hospital the next, etc) and that just becomes going there as a chore. You have to work in one place for at least a few times to kind of further your connection with it and understand, really feel its purpose and importance.
I would love to organize a long term and long distance community service project. I have friends who teach in other international schools who organize trips with their students to developing countries where they have done a number of project i.e. helped build libraries, worked with kids in orphanages, saved baby turtles etc. I am wondering if that could be possible here?
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