Choose one of the citizen’s personal responsibilities presented in the lesson. Use complete sentences to explain why it is especially important for citizens to fulfill the responsibility you selected.
Student responses will vary but should include complete sentences explaining the student’s reasoning about why it is especially important for citizens to fulfill one of the following personal responsibilities: taking care of others, respecting the rights of others, following sound moral or ethical ideals, staying in control of one’s actions, and taking responsibility for oneself.
Describe the impact of improvements in technology and transportation on American citizens.
Modern technology, including telecommunication, has impacted American citizens’ ability to learn about issues and share opinions. It has also created the possibility of e-democracy—the direct participation by citizens online in voting and sharing opinions. Technology has also connected nations. National business is now international; economic decisions in one nation affect many other nations; environmental concerns are worldwide. Finally, movement of people has increased with improved transportation methods and laws.
Why is it important for students to learn that private citizens such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton (women’s right to vote), William Lloyd Garrison (abolition of slavery), and Martin Luther King, Jr. (equal rights for African Americans) have made a positive difference in American society?
Student responses will vary but should include a discussion of why it is important for students to learn that private citizens such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, William Lloyd Garrison, and Martin Luther King, Jr. have made a positive difference in American society. Students may include the idea that such knowledge confirms the power of the individual in American government and society and offers hope that, through determined effort, change is possible.
E-democracy represents the use of information and communication technologies, such as the Internet and smart phones, to enable more active citizen participation in government decisions.
Student responses will vary but should provide examples of how citizens of a town can use communication technologies and Internet tools such as websites, blogs, webcams, and videos to share their opinions, “discuss” the options, and make a decision about the best use for a field on the edge of town: swimming and diving center, factory site, nature preserve.
One of the economic rights that Americans enjoy is the right to become an entrepreneur. In a paragraph of not less than five sentences, tell why you think it is important for people to be free to open their own businesses. Why is it good for the entrepreneur? Why is it good for our nation as a whole?
Student responses will vary but should be presented in a paragraph of not less than five sentences and should discuss the benefits of freely being able to open one’s own business, both for the entrepreneur and for the nation as a whole. Possible responses include: opening a business allows the entrepreneur to make money, exercise control over his/her own destiny, and to express his/her creativity. For the nation as whole, entrepreneurship creates jobs, brings new products and ideas to market, and fosters an attitude of possibility within the society
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