Citizenship… what does it mean?

Today Cosette and I got up early and drove to Dallas. We stood in a long line and waited for hours in a packed room full of strangers. Why? Believe it or not, this was the last step in Cosette’s paperwork. Yes, Cosette is finally in possession of a U.S. Certificate of Citizenship. She was officially a citizen on August 21, 2002, my 34^th birthday and the day she first touched U.S. soil. But today she has the proof. (to the right Cosette signing the forms)

As we were waiting today, watching all the other families excitedly file into this cramped room I began to think about what it means to be a citizen of the United States. What do you think it means? What are your responsibilities as a citizen? Any commitments? When the actual swearing in happened I caught a glimpse or what it means (right and below Cosette with a new friend she met this morning):

First some of our rights:

1. Freedom of religion
2. Freedom of Speech
3. Freedom of the Press
4. The Right to Assemble
5. The Right to Petition

Our responsibilities:

1. Obeying the laws
2. Paying taxes
3. Jury duty
4. Serve as a witness
5. Register for the draft
6. Voting!

On our drive home Cosette and I talked about what just happened. I asked her if she knew what it meant to be a U.S. Citizen and we talked briefly about the concepts listed above (right, Cosette with new certificate).

I believe that Cosette is right now forming her attitudes about voting, her place within the community, and her sense of a greater common good. Alarmingly, study after study shows a rapid increase in self concern and a decrease in the knowledge, interest, and participation by teens in the responsibilities of citizenship. In 1990, the Times Mirror study of five decades revealed that the current young generation, knows less, cares less . . . votes less, and, in 1990, were significantly less informed than middle-aged and older people about current events. Civic aptitude among 17-year-olds declined markedly by 1990, with students having particular difficulty answering questions on the political processes and historical traditions of our democracy.

"Children are one-third of our population and all of our future." - Unknown

What can I do to help my children avoid becoming a part of these statistics? Help them enter political life in situations where their voices will be heard. Help them see that their votes count. Work with them to develop a basic understanding of political institutions. Most importantly, provide experiences that help them learn about and engage with the community, whichever community that is local, citywide, regional, Democratic, or Republican (right, celebrating with chocolate pancakes).

Below are some ideas printed with permission from www.LearningtoGive.org

Promote Volunteering

"What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child."

—George Bernard Shaw

Encourage your children to be active, regular volunteers in an organization dealing with an issue they care about. Also, encourage organizations in which you're involved to develop policies and programs that support volunteer opportunities for young people (e.g., a youth advisory committee or youth positions on the adult board).

Discussion of Philanthropic Ideas

This is the time to hold family discussions on topics related to philanthropy. Students are both cynical and idealistic. Family discussions about complex issues, in a warm and supportive environment, can help your school-age adult sort through this complexity. At this age, your school aged child will begin to shift between idealism and realism.

Suggested Points of Discussion:

• Was Mother Teresa a saint or a loser? She died with only her personal clothing and a few other personal items. Was her life a success? Why or why not?
• What does it mean to have a sense of place and to belong to a community? What is important about it? To how many communities does your family belong (e.g., geographic community, religious community, ethnic community, world community, youth community, etc.)?
• How does giving and serving develop a sense of belonging and community?
• How does volunteering strengthen the community?
• What do you see as the key problems of our time? What are the causes and consequences? How might giving and serving make a difference to these problems?

Service-Learning at School

Encourage your school to develop high-quality service-learning opportunities as a teaching method. These volunteer experiences tie academic learning to real-world needs and volunteer efforts. Support your teen's involvement in appropriate community service. Advocate for the experience to have academic ties to the school curriculum.

Get Out the Vote

"We can't form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them as God gives them to us."

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Political awareness is key to political involvement. Have family discussions about current events, political candidates, judicial decisions, and family members' opinions about important topics. Remember, your teen has not reached a final position on any issue yet. Their opinions will change as they mature and go through life's experiences.

Model and encourage support of the political process. Volunteer together at a local campaign headquarters for presidential, state or local candidates. Prepare food to take to your local polling place on Election Day. Have a pamphlet-designing party for your teen's friends, then distribute the pamphlets to encourage other teens to vote. Help your teen hold a brainstorming session on how they can make a difference in the local election.

This blog is supposed to be about Daniel, I know, but this is the news for today. I hope you don’t mind.

Tonya