The statement by Ken Osborne in Political Education and Citizenship: Teaching for Civic Engagement, “Schools have largely succeeded in educating children to be good people but have been much less successful in turning them into good citizens”, makes me a little mad. Not because I disagree with him, but because I agree. I feel like I am a good person. I am kind, friendly, concerned about social issues, I respect other people’s rights, and I certainly feel like I obey the law, but am I in turn a good citizen? In a time like now, when we are in the midst of an election, I wish that I knew more. Osborne says that it is a lack of interest that keeps young voters away from the polls, but I disagree. I want to be informed and engaged in the public affairs of my country, but I feel like I was not properly prepared to do so. Our country’s different party platforms are often difficult to decipher to someone who has little knowledge in politics.
I do not think I can ever recall a moment in my own educational history that politics were mentioned besides a broad statement about them or about democracy. I understand that teachers were probably asked not to push their own political agendas onto students (unless they were coming directly from the school itself) but I think that there are ways to introduce students to it in objective ways. The rhetoric around citizenship education does a good job of explaining what it is trying to do, but it just isn’t happening in reality.
To be a good citizen, one must still be all of the things that make up a good person, but that is not all. We need to work on the dimension “that embraces an informed and principled engagement in and with the public affairs of one’s society”. We need to create do-ers. People who are involved in the political process, whether that be through informed voting or being involved in political activity.
In my middle years classroom I hope to help shape my students into both good people and good citizens. Since I personally feel uninformed and a little incapable of breaking down party platforms I could start there with students. This can be done in a way that still allows students to make their own decisions. We could start by seeing the history of Canada’s political parties; where they came from, what they have done in the past. To ensure that there is no bias, we would do this based on factual evidence and not the opinions of others. During an election, as a class we could look at each of the parties’ platform statements and break down what it is they say they want to do. Just because my students would not be old enough to vote, does not mean they should not begin to shape their own opinions and beliefs about what they find important. I would also like to look at how the current ad campaigns and often focus on the negatives of opposing parties, how that does nothing to further their own message, and how that can be harmful in creating informed citizens.
That is just one example of how creating good citizens can start in the classroom, Ken Osborne gives five more broad ways to do this: giving students a liberal education, having prominent goals of the political dimension of citizenship, educating teachers as well as students, engagement with real world politics, and lastly portray humans as actively and without knowing the consequences, shaping the past, present, and with students, the future. These could easily become outcomes in a curriculum, and if not that, we should still find a way for them to be incorporated into the lessons of all students.
– Jen
Mrs. Chyz's Classroom 