I recently read an article about how uninformed most Americans are today. It really was appalling. If you didn't see it, you can find it here: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/millions-americans-are-embarrassingly-ill-informed-and-they-do-not-care-0
It is a long read but well worth the effort. Anyway, it got me thinking about what a person needs to know to be a good citizen. In searching for answers, I came upon this set of brief essays by 11 yr olds in Mr. W's class: http://www.lcsd.k12.wa.us/~wwesterberg/la6/citizen_essays.htm I am glad that we have teachers who ask kids to write essays on this topic. Mr. W prefaced the kids essays with this: "In this assignment, students were asked what they could do now, as sixth graders to be good citizens. Both classes read an article and an essay about citizenship before setting out to write. Essays are posted in the same form they were turned in whenever possible."
Please take a look at what the kids are saying. According to their criteria, are you a good citizen? If not, what will you do about it? They really synthesized it all into this: be involved, obey the law, be nice to others.
Lastly, from this little chapter:
http://moodle.esd113.org/pluginfile.php/1519/mod_resource/content/3/p105-108.ch8.pdf are the following ideas: be of good character, know your neighbors, love to learn, participate in your community, think about the common good and individual liberty, learn science, don't think you have to know everything, lean toward optimism, think of yourself as a very powerful person, question authority, don't hate government, and lastly, keep the faith (As in believe in government)
Now, what do you think it takes to be a good citizen?
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