In my k-12 schooling experience I don’t think I had much education when it comes to citizenship, but there are a couple of lessons I remember. I don’t remember to many direct lessons about citizenship, but I do remember one lesson that stuck with me. In my grade 7 year we did a mock election. Grades 4-7 all voted in the mock election and it was actually quite fun. Before everyone voted teachers were tasked with teaching us students about the different political parties, what their platforms were, and what platforms actually were. Everyone in my class seemed to actually start paying attention to the election that was really going on. I remember watching the news with my parents a few times in an attempt to follow the election and become more informed about it even out of school. This is just how much this subject interested me and got me engaged in the topic. To this day I enjoy politics in many ways. This lesson would have focused on the participatory citizen model. We learned and were encouraged to participate in the voting experience. This is participating in civic affairs and being a responsible citizen who is active in the community. This is something that is important to encourage in schools, especially since voting numbers have been steadily dropping. Less and less people, especially young people, are voting these days and this is a serious problem. As citizens we all have the right to vote, but we also have the responsibility to do so and this is what that lesson taught me. This made it possible to recognize what a participatory citizen does. It made me interested in politics and helped me develop an appreciation for the need to vote and being able to make your voice heard. It made it possible for me to be a participatory citizen and a responsible citizen.
In high school I also remember doing an activity on the three types of citizenship in english class. I believe it was my grade 9 or 10 year. We read several situations. In some cases in the situation that we were reading people were faced with moral dilemmas and then they would either make the moral or immoral decisions and then we had to say why they might of made that decision and what kind of citizen they were. This lesson did stick with me afterwards because I thought it was important to recognize the different types of citizens and it made me think about what kind of citizen I was. The lesson mostly focused on the personally responsible citizen and the justice orientated citizen. We discussed different kinds of citizens and why it was important to be aware of your citizenship and responsibilities as a citizen. We also discussed what kind of citizen we would want to be. This made it possible for me to examine myself and to figure out what kind of citizen I was and what kind of citizen I’d like to be. It also made it possible for me to see that different kinds of citizens are all necessary in different scenarios. I realised that a truly ‘good’ citizen will have some aspects of all three kinds of citizens. A person should be a participatory citizen, a personally responsible citizen, and a justice orientated citizen. To help society to the fullest a person needs to have some aspects and understanding of all three kinds of citizens.
All of this education that I got on citizenship made it possible for me to be a well rounded citizen. It made it possible for me to become more introspective and to analyse what kind of citizen I wanted to be. I knew it was possible for me to become any kind of citizen I wanted to and that I could help my community. I knew in grade 7 that I had a responsibility towards my community in many different ways. The mock vote was probably the most impactful lesson in regards to citizenship for me because it also made me excited to vote in the future and is a big reason why I have participated in elections.
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