I honestly can not remember citizenship education in my school. The main thing I remember was coming from a small town often times students mainly in the middle years or high school ages were given chances to go out in the community to help out rather than being in class. While coming into the school we were always told to take our shoes off and I remember as a form of discipline we had to go around the school yard and pick up garbage, I feel these are apart of being a good citizen. Westheimer & Kahne write the personally responsible citizen is acting responsibly in his/her community by picking up litter, giving blood, recycling, obeying laws, and staying out of debt. Westheimer & Kahne state that the participatory citizen are people who actively participate in the civic affairs and the social life of the community at local, state, and national levels. Westheimer & Kahne also talked about justice orientated citizen which is the least commonly pursued citizen. Going back to the examples I used I believe the main focus in my school was the personally responsible citizen.
I agree! I can’t remember citizenship being taught clearly through a curriculum in school. I remember it as part of the hidden curriculum, student awards regarding behaviour, food drives or blood drives. But all those things were done outside of lessons. I wonder what citizenship would look like being taught as a lesson during elementary?