ECS 203 Response Citizenship

Until recently the idea of citizenship would go right over my head, having no true idea what it was but knowing I had it and felt happy to be a Canadian citizen. Being a citizen is the legality of your existence, something official and a reason to be proud of your country. Citizenship as explained in class is a law abiding, tax paying, voting person who has the ability to make change within their community if that step is taken.

I never knew how much education and citizenship had in common and how intertwined the two were until this week. How we as educators can impact the students with the information either shared or withheld. It is our jobs as teachers to stay unbiased in a world where it can be extremely difficult, we must give our students the information to ensure they make the right choices on their own regarding their place within society. It is not our job to force our view of citizenship and ideas of a “good citizen” onto the students as those ideas are built from our own experiences that are much different than future students will be.

When thinking about Treaty Education and citizenship one quote by Mike Capello sticks out “we entered into those treaty relationships as liars” (2019) the past curriculum has let Indigenous people down with the lack of Treaty knowledge and history, only learning more about the history of colonialism in grade twelve. As educators we must give knowledge of the meaning of citizenship from all cultures and perspectives to ensure that we do not repeat the past and our students grow up being loving human beings proud of their country and the reconciliation; that will only take place with the help of everyone including teachers and curriculum writers.