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The roles of citizens
5 importance of citizenship education
The importance of citizenship education
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The realm of Civic education encompasses notable knowledge issues which underlies cardinal areas of human development. Preparation of young people for future endeavours is the heart of the subject matter of Civic education. Therefore, it is the ultimate goal of civic education to “help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives”, (Kirlin, 2003). This entails that Civic education aims at creating people that are knowledgeable and confident in various matters pertaining to the society in which they live. When people are empowered with knowledge and skills they can effectively participate in community and national decision making …show more content…
It is only when a sense of responsibility is embedded in the minds of individuals can a society benefit fully from Civic education. Thus, an individual’s role in society forms the basis of the second assumption. Indeed “society is composed of individuals, and thus civic education should cultivate the role that the individual takes in the public sphere” (Nie, Junn, & Stehlik-Barry, 1996: Cited by Cohen, 2009). This assumption is motivated by the fact that each individual aims at achieving his or her own personal goal. Therefore, Civic education enables individuals to develop some civic behaviours that make them confident towards taking up responsibilities in the public domain (Kirlin, 2003). An individual is part of a society and his or her role is cardinal to becoming a useful citizen. It is therefore imperative for each citizen to take his or her responsibilities to contribute effectively to society. Short of which, an individual may be rendered redundant in the affairs of a particular community. For instance, in the democratic political structure, it is an individual’s civic responsibility to participate in the electoral system such as voting to elect leaders (Cohen, 2009). This sense of responsibility may include acquaintance with the different opportunities for political involvement such as voting, connecting to representatives and understanding the main issues being
On the national civics assessment, “two-thirds of 12th graders scored below ‘proficient’…and only 9 percent could list two ways a democracy benefits from citizen participation” (O’Connor and Romer 4). The information provided clarifies just how little students know about democracy. Without education on the subject, they are unaware as to how their government contribution is beneficial and why it is needed in the first place. The students, because of their lack of understanding, therefore choose to not take part in their government and fail to carry out their duties as a citizen. The authors provide more research that shows “the better people understand our history and system of government, the more likely they are to vote and participate in the civic life” (O’Connor and Romer 8).
...adults compared to older adults were less likely to respond that voting was extremely important for good citizenship (133). He concludes that it is too late for the generation of young adults that do not feel voting is an important civic responsibility, however, that it is not too late to convince them that politics matter by showing them that they are giving their opportunity to make important decisions that may impact their lives to others who have different ideas. One may agree with Wattenberg’s idea that habits follow people throughout their lives instead of changing as they cycle in life. His personal accounts are an impactful way to illustrate the importance of building a sense of duty at a young age and carrying that responsibility throughout one’s life.
Dalton begins by asking what a good citizen is. He doesn’t give an outright answer of what he thinks a good citizen is, but allows the reader to decide for themselves. Those in political and academic worlds contend that too few in the younger generation are voting and are the primary source of decline. They volunteer, but are disengaged from politics. Dalton disputes this by saying they may not be turning out to vote in high numbers, but are participating in other ways such as volunteering, demonstrating, and protesting, and calls these the new norms of citizenship.
Americans and Britons had a stronger sense of civic duty and and civic competence, believed they could “do something’ about an unjust law, and that citizens should be active in one’s community. While Americans lagged behind Austria, the Netherlands, West Germany, and the United Kingdom in voter participation, they seemed to be much more involved in other areas such as campaigning, being active in the local community, and contacting government official. But in “Bowling Alone,” Robert Putnam states that not only has voter turnout declined, but so has citizen participation in politics and government. This is because they are more self-reliant now. People do not vote because they do not care. They believe the democratic values this nation was built upon do not exist
4Lopez, Hugo and Benjamin Brown. 2006. Civic Engagement among 2-year and 4-year College Students. Somerville, MA: The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
It is our civic right and duty to actively participate in governmental affairs. This recent election really highlighted the divide in opinion regarding the importance of governmental participation. “To many, our democratic system seems so broken that they have simply lost faith that their participation could really matter,” West writes in his essay entitled The Deep Democratic Tradition in America. Young people feel unimportant and irrelevant, which explains the lack in turnout from young voters ages 18-29. However, it wasn’t just young voters that didn’t turnout. Millions of eligible voters didn’t show up for the 2016 elections. A democracy without active participants is a democracy bound for
The ideal citizen would be one that is interested, motivated and discusses issues at hand. However, a great majority of citizens don't make an effort to participate in political affairs or civic duties. Nor do they have the motivation to participate in a political life. Most of the time, an average citizen will adopt the mind set of “it doesn't really matter” or “don't care” (Berlson). For a successful democracy the citizens should also be well informed, follow principals and be rational.
To make matters worse, civic participation, like voting, simply becomes a way for citizens to “console themselves”(9). For it remains an expression of free-will by the people in which they feel like they influenced politics, but in reality, they were just choosing a selection from predetermined options. Tocqueville writes all of this as a warning to Americans of the dangers of allowing themselves to focus too much on material goods because all of this is fake and detrimental to American democracy and humanity. Ultimately, Tocqueville does believe that these issues can be avoided as long as citizens engage in civic association with one another to the extent that they then are forced to challenge the norm and think critically about the nature of political life.
O’Neill, Brenda. 2007. “Human Capital, Civic Engagement and Political Participation: Turning Skills and Knowledge into Engagement and Action.” In Garnett Picot, Ron Saunders and Arthur Sweetman (eds). Fulfilling Potential, Creating Success: Perspectives on Human Capital Development. Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
When analyzing the voting turn out in this nation is becomes evident that the youth of America tends to be less active compared to their elders. Written in the book "Is Voting for Young People" by Martin P. Wattenberg he breaks down the key components connecting the youth of America to voting in order to come to the conclusion of how active the youth is in politics, and ways to make them more involved.
The role of civic engagement in neighborhood revitalization, particularly in low income African American communities, has gained increased awareness and in recent years. Community, nonprofit, and government leaders now view civic engagement as a critical component of effective solutions as they seek to address crime, unemployment, low graduation rates and numerous other neighborhood challenges. Several successful initiatives have come to fruition and provide strong evidence of the benefits that increased civic engagement provides.
To achieve civic engagement is undertaken in many diverse ways. These are determined by several factors, amongst them the purpose of the civic engagement, the people involved in it, the funds to be involved amongst others. The...
A citizen is not just a legal status defined by rights and responsibilities but a shared identity, the expression of one’s membership. A good citizen preserves his personal integrity and avoids the conflict of interest: he equally enjoys his private and public life without discontinuity in his character; he sees the latter neither as a burden nor as a platform to pursue his personal projects. To be a good citizen is to believe that you can make a difference for the better.
Citizenship education has become a keystone of democratic governments such as those found in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. Other forms of state government (autocracies, oligarchies, monarchies, theocracies, et al.) impose limitations on the rights of its citizens, so therefore the majority of their population will never need to learn what it takes to actually participate in government, and they just learn to follow the mandated laws or else face the consequences. The ability to actively function in a democratic society is not instinctual; it is in fact a learned skill. In her research, L. Alison Molina-Giron (2016) describes how the study of citizenship has become fundamental to democracies because “citizenship education must prepare youngsters to [actively participate]… in their nation’s civic and political life. Indeed, democracy not only
The future of education is very promising to younger generations. From Kindergarten though college many changes are brewing. On the horizon are things like smart objects, full-length online courses, and prosthetic devices designed to equalize education.