Citizenship is defined as the state of being vested with the rights, privileges, and duties of a citizen. In addition, being a citizen also means that you are a recognized member of a state or country. This is being taught at various international schools in Manila. In Reedley, most especially, particularly since this is our chosen virtue for the month of September.
Citizenship teaches young people to deal with difficult situations intelligently and honorably. It helps to provide them to grasp the various consequences of their actions, and of those around them. Parents could join in the effort to properly teach them this value.
Teaching Children the Significance of Citizenship
The significance of citizenship should be taught as early as possible because it would allow your children to have a better understanding and appreciation of it. To shape them into these kinds of people, you could start by teaching them about the following:
Respect
One of the most important things that you could teach your children is respect. Having this is a mark of a good citizen since it instills a positive attitude to your kids. Essentially, this means they would be able to understand another person’s opinion, even though they may not agree to it.
Apart from that, having respect means that they will not harm the environment or damage others’ properties. Help them find ways on how to care for nature and allow them to understand that vandalizing or damaging the property of others is hurtful and disrespectful.
Responsibility
Responsibility is mainly about the obligations and duties a person has to accomplish as a citizen. As an adult, they include voting during each election period, registering important identification information in various government departments and offices, paying your taxes, and maintaining good morals and a clean record.
As starters for your children, you could let them know that little things, such as going to school and maintaining the cleanliness of public areas, matter too. Encourage your children to do these things in order to shape them to be good citizens.
Discipline
As with respect, discipline is a very important trait that should be taught to students. Having this means that you are able to follow rules diligently and be able to practice self-control. This is vital to learn in order to become a good citizen, as it is needed when you are accomplishing your rightful obligations and duties in the years to come.
Naturally, parents are very good teachers of discipline. This is because without even knowing it you are educating your kids this value by simply establishing rules around your homes for them to follow. By doing this, you are surely instilling this in them.
Key Takeaway
Teaching citizenship to students could be made easier by instilling the traits listed above. Your children knowing how to be respectful, responsible, and disciplined could be the foundation for them to become good citizens.
