Good Citizens and Respect

1. Good Citizens and Respect I will: • Discuss what a ‘good’ citizen should do or be. • Examine corporal punishment as a way of encouraging respect. • Discuss the role of the parent in relation to the behaviour of their children.

2. Work in groups of 4. A ‘Good’ Citizen Agree Disagree Can’t decide 1. Draw the table below. 2. Cut the statements out and stick them onto your table depending upon your opinion. Do you ‘agree’, ‘disagree’ or ‘can’t decide’ if the statement describes a ‘good’ citizen.

3. The Results • Which statements did you find it difficult to decide about and why? • Which statements did your group not agree upon? • Which statements did your group agree upon?

4. ‘Good’ Citizens • The problems we have in society are often said to be the result of there not being enough ‘good’ citizens. • Politicians, newspaper editors and others tell us that schools should turn their pupils into good citizens. • The trouble is that it is not always easy to say exactly what a ‘good’ citizen is, and people do not always agree about it.

5. The top 5 things that a good citizen should do or be: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Work in a group of four. You can use the statements from the ‘good’ citizen activity or you can make your own up.

6. A Lack of Respect • Young people are regularly accused of having ‘a lack of respect’. • Schools and parents are often blamed for not teaching young people respect. • Some people say that the outlawing of corporal punishment (physical punishment such as canning or striking someone with a hand) in school is to blame for young peoples lack of respect. What is corporal punishment?

7. Corporal Punishment • It was not until 1889 that children in England and Wales had any kind of special protection in law. • Laws banning cruelty to animals appeared sometime before those preventing cruelty to children. • One reason for this was that many people believed the law should not interfere in private family life. Another was the difficulty of prosecuting a violent parent, as the law did not allow one member of a family to give evidence in court against another. • Although corporal punishment is not allowed in schools it is still part of many children's lives in Britain. • Some European countries including Sweden and Cyprus have made it an offence for parents to hit a child but parents are prosecuted only in serious cases.

8. Corporal Punishment • Do you think that schools should be allowed to use corporal punishment? • Do you think that parents should be allowed to use corporal punishment? • Do you think that corporal punishment encourages respect and ‘good’ behaviour? • Complete the table below: For corporal punishment Against corporal punishment

9. What Makes a Good Parent? • Parents are often blamed for the behaviour of their children. • Most parents will say that being a mum or dad can be the most difficult job in the world. • There is no training, a lot of guesswork and you often make mistakes. • Being a parent for many people today is, in some ways, different from what it was in the past. • Our families tend to be smaller. • One of the parents may live alone with their child. • We are less likely to live either with or near our relatives. This means that grandparents and aunts and uncles may not be on hand to give advice and help out with the children.

10. Parents • Create a job advert for a parent: what skills are needed; what are the hours of work; what will the job entail etc. • Do you think that parents should be held responsible for their children's actions. • What do you think young people need from their parents? • What kind of problems can make it difficult to be a parent?

11. A Good Citizen Poster • Design a poster advertising your number one statement of what a good citizen should do or be.