Good citizenship

 

 A good citizen is one who properly fulfils his/her role as a citizen. There are many opinions as to what constitutes a good citizen. Theodore Roosevelt said, "The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight."^[1] Education is sometimes viewed as a prerequisite to good citizenship, in that it helps citizens make good decisions and deal with demagogues who would delude them. Roger Soder writes that in a democracy, where the demands of good citizenship are placed upon all, "only the common schools can provide to all the education that all need."^[2] Science literacy is also frequently touted as a key to good citizenship.^[3] Good citizenship is sometimes viewed as requiring both intellectual skills (such as critical thinking) and participatory skills (such as deliberating civilly, monitoring the government, building coalitions, managing conflict peacefully and fairly, and petitioning, speaking or testifying before public bodies).^[4]

• Henry David Thoreau wrote that men who serve the state making "no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense...are commonly esteemed good citizens."^[5] Orit Ichilov notes that children "tend to perceive the government in the image of an ideal father that is benevolent and protective. At this stage, the good citizen is characterized as one who, through his behavior, proves himself one worthy of the love and protection of the government rather than one possessing certain political obligations and rights." Through their early school years, children usually continue to think in apolitical terms of their citizenship, expressing loyalty by their desire to remain in their country due to an attachment to its beauty, wildlife, and good people. By age twelve or thirteen, they begin referring more to political qualities, such as the nature and values of the regime. High school seniors define the good citizen primarily in political terms.^[6] Some students define good citizenship in terms of standing up for what one believes in. Joel Westheimer identifies the personally responsible citizen (who acts responsibly in his community, e.g. by donating blood), the participatory citizen (who is an active member of community organizations and/or improvement efforts) and the justice-oriented citizen (who critically assesses social, political, and economic structures to see beyond surface causes) as three different types of "good citizen."^[7]
• Sometimes incentives prevail over desires to be a good citizen. For example, many people will avoid coming forth as witnesses in court cases because they do not want to deal with the inconvenience and red tape.^[8] Aristotle makes a distinction between the good citizen and the good man, writing, "...there cannot be a single absolute excellence of the good citizen. But the good man is so called in virtue of a single absolute excellence. It is thus clear that it is possible to be a good citizen without possessing the excellence which is the quality of a good man." Specifically, in his view, the good citizen is measured in relation to ruling and being ruled, the good man only in ruling. Some of the ambiguity is likely due to more than one Greek word being translated "good."^[9]
• Many organizations attempt to promote "good citizenship." For example, the Boy Scouts of America published Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship, and the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship is given to those who are deemed to have made outstanding contributions to the well being of their communities without expectation of remuneration or reward. Another non profit organization, Good Citizen, has a mission to teach Americans how to be effective citizens and focuses on 100 citizen actions.

• Human beings are used to living under laws and patterns that are dictated to us by society, but following those patterns does not make us good citizens. To be a good citizen first you have to be a good person. By that I mean that you have to be full of values, principles, ethics, etc. When joining all these aspects together you will find out that there is nothing else to be needed.
• One important aspect for being a good citizen is to help people. All around us, we can see there are always people in need for our help. Our job as good citizens is to help those kinds of people. When talking about the people that need our help, I am not only talking about the poor ones, but also the pregnant woman who cannot carry a heavy package or the old man that cannot cross the street. Remember that little actions make the difference.
• Another important thing we have to remember for being a good citizen is to have an active participation in our community. There are a lot of ways we can do that. When elections come for voting for the governor, we have to be in the line ready to give our vote. When there is a gathering of our neighborhood for deciding about the maintenance of the streets, we have to be there to tell our point of view.
• The last recommendation for being a good citizen is the respect toward the people that live around us. We have to remember that as we have rights, they have them too. Respect is one of the most important bases when living in a society. We all have freedom, but it is restricted to certain point. We cannot consider a killer or thief good citizens as they have violated that restriction.
• Through this essay, there have been exposed some ideas of what I think are the most important aspects for being good citizens inside a community. Now-a-days the relationships between people have been really deteriorated by misunderstandings that are generated day by day. To avoid having to deal with these kinds of situations, we have to be aware that the solution is in us. Values and ethics should be inculcated to people as they mature, as that kind of information will built them for being good citizens.