ABSTRACT
The following two extracts were recently submitted in a competition set on the theme of ‘The Young Citizen and the Twenty-First Century’.
The two extracts are very different. The extract written by ‘Alice’ is very negative and suggests that she does not have any power or influence. ‘Arlo’, on the other hand, seems to be seeing life through a pair of rose-tinted spectacles. What Alice and Arlo have in common is that neither actually represents what the study of Citizenship is about. Citizenship is not about telling you what your position in society is and then leaving you to it. Neither is the study of Citizenship about presenting you with a shopping list of virtues and ‘good behaviour’ to be ticked off once accomplished. So, what is the study of Citizenship and what will it involve? Citizenship involves questioning:
• your role as a citizen and your influence as a citizen; • how much power you have as a citizen; • who has authority over you; • what is going on in society and how it will affect you and other citizens; • your understanding of why things happen in the way that they do and
why they are presented in the way that they are; • the role of other citizens; and • questioning the role and function of institutions in society.
