Defining Citizenship (02-23-09)

How would you define a good citizen? This week, I was asked that question at our district in-service. The question was part of a presentation about Character Counts, a character education program that our district is considering adopting. The presenter explained that the program is based on six “pillars”: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship (referred to by the mnemonic device “TeRRiFiCC”). The presenter divided us into six groups, and each group was assigned the job of defining one of the six pillars. My group was asked to define citizenship.

At first, I was a little skeptical. My initial response was to say that citizenship was defined by the other five pillars – a good citizen would be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, fair, and caring. The presenter even acknowledged that, in fact, some school districts have opted to go with just those five pillars, dropping “citizenship” under the assumption that anyone with the five characteristics would automatically make a good citizen.

But then Jim Hickel, our superintendent, came up with the best definition of citizenship I have ever heard. “Citizenship is more that just the other five pillars,” he said. “Citizenship means putting the needs of the community over the needs of the individual.”

Wow! With one simple sentence, a term I had previously considered to be vague and ambiguous suddenly became clear and sharply defined.

You see, every year I have been a principal, I have been asked to present a “citizenship” award. I have asked the teachers for help in selecting this student, because I had a difficult time seeing students as citizens. For me, it had been a question of age. I had always equated a citizen with an adult. Good citizens, in my old way of thinking, were adults who voted, served on boards or councils, and gave their time to churches or service organizations. Because of my limited definition, I struggled with how to identify a student citizen. I used to wonder if students really had all that much opportunity to be good citizens. They’re just kids, I thought.

But all that changed on Monday with Mr. Hickel’s insightful definition. By looking for people who put the needs of their community over their own needs, I feel that I now have a clear litmus test to judge school citizens, community citizens, state citizens, national citizens, and global citizens.

As I decide who should win this year’s citizenship award, I will look for the student who did for school before doing for themselves. For example, I will consider the concession stand workers who signed up and showed up when the work was hard, inconvenient, and the hours were long. I’ll consider the students who have volunteered to be a Bronco Ambassador, a member of our character education team, even when it required them to sacrifice their after school time. I’ll look for students who pick up trash, turn in lost items, or who say thank you, because often those actions are overlooked by their peers.

I will even consider those students who put a smaller community ahead of themselves, such as the student who stayed on a team even when they weren’t happy, because they knew their presence would make the team better. With this improved definition, I can now ask teachers to identify students who do the little things to make the class better, or who, when put into small groups, do things to make the group better.

Self-sacrifice can happen at any level, from agreeing to be the note taker for a class discussion group, to serving in the armed forces for our country. A good citizen recycles, votes, pays taxes, volunteers and gets involved, not for individual benefit, but simply because it helps the group, the organization, the town, the state, the nation or the planet.

It is never too late (or too early) to be a good citizen. No act of self-sacrifice is too big or too small. I am excited to finally feel that I understand the true meaning of citizenship, and I look forward to defining citizenship for students now and in the years to come.