Civic-Minded?

Citizenship, patriotism, & duty--these things have always been important to me. Perhaps it is because I had a father who raised my sister and I to watch the news and debate at the kitchen table. (Well, actually we used to complain about being forced to watch the news and my dad and I would argue over politics at the table to my mother's chagrin, but you get the idea.) Anyway, today as I taught my students, I understood a new importance for these words and ideals. We watched a video called "What Would You Do?" which has been a popular series of segments on ABC News Primetime Live where they put people in situations to see what they would do. In one segment today, a group of teenage actors were spray painting a car in broad daylight in a busy public park. The producers wanted to see how many people would stop the boys or call 9-1-1. First, the group of teens were white; later, they changed the actors to a group of black boys. 13 calls were made to 9-1-1 when the boys were black, but only 1 call was made when the boys were white.

I asked my students if they felt an obligation or a duty to stand up for justice, in this instance, or any other time when they felt someone was being wronged. To my surprise, only ONE student in my class of 27 said that they would have stopped the boys or called 9-1-1! ONE! Other students said that they would either walk away or stop and watch. A few students even said they would help the boys beat on the car!

I got thinking today about how to help students become more civic-minded. I mean, where will the future of our country be if we don't teach the principles of duty and justice to our young folks? So here's what I did...I decided to MODEL this for them today. Our community is having a mass casualty emergency drill next weekend and they need volunteers to play the part of victims who have been injured in a school shooting. I'm going to volunteer to be a victim and I got several students today to also volunteer! In addition (and this opportunity just fell in my lap today), I'm going to moderate a debate in a few weeks between school board and board of supervisors candidates in my community. Just call me the Jim Lehrer of Winchester, VA!

Our government didn't happen by chance and our democracy will not remain by chance either. Each of us can do our own part in preserving what we have in America. That is the ultimate expression of kindness to those coming behind us. What will you do?