Those of you of school age during the ’50s and ’60s will remember a grade we all received on report cards each reporting period that had nothing to do with homework or tests. It was called “Citizenship.” I don’t know whether this category still exists, but it seems to me, and Victor Davis Hanson that it doesn’t.
We got marked on our report cards in something actually called “Citizenship.” It had nothing to do, as so often today, with putting in hours of “community service” at various approved social agencies. Our “Citizenship” grades instead measured how “orderly” we were in class; whether we addressed the teachers with the proper courtesy and deference; how well we helped to clean the campus each week; and how presentable our desks and lockers were–along with assessments of our “personal cleanliness and general neatness.” Writing in our textbooks or putting gum under our desks, we were told in first grade, were crimes against “next year?s class, who now will have to use the damaged articles you people left behind.” Not bathing, or wearing the same clothes for a week, were not signs of civil disobedience or unhappiness with mainstream culture but rather indictments of laziness and unconcern for students unfortunate enough to sit near you.
I know, it sounds so old fashioned.
It was a simple concept: Pick up trash when you see it on the floor or ground. Address adults as “Sir” and “Ma’am.” Don’t shove others. Don’t write in your school books. Help others who need it. Don’t stick used gum on the underside of your desk. None of that is too difficult.
Did teaching these things fall by the way? Hanson believes so. And he links this loss to the inability of Americans to see themselves as a group rather than a collection of groups. He makes a compelling argument.
>>>I know, it sounds so old fashioned.
Not to me and Mrs. Elbow…
I think you’re gonna like how the grandkids turn out.
Comment by Bogey — April 9, 2004 @ 7:36 pm
Thank God, most of West Texas is a remaining bastion of “the good ol’ days” in many respects. Citizenship is still a part of a tykes grades in public elementary school. And so in the Catholic School we sent our young lad to. [he got a 94 last grading period :>)]
Some thing have changed however. The neighborhoods in particular. In my day we generally behaved where ever we were, because you knew that you’d be called to account by anyone of your friends parents or other neighbors, just as you would your own. If you were noticed pulling some mischief by your neighbors, you were sure your folks would hear about it.
Comment by Wallace — April 9, 2004 @ 11:30 pm
We always policed ourselves. When someone got out of line, there were always others around to calm things down. We didn’t tolerate people going berserk. I sometimes acted as enforcer, and sometimes as the fool. But we were adult enough not to need adults to remind us of personal responsibility. Our peers did that because those were the values we were taught early on.
Congrats to the youngster on learning these values!
Comment by Bunker — April 10, 2004 @ 4:36 pm
I definitely remember “Citizenship” in school. Quaint, aren’t we? Also recall “Penmanship.” (Mine is horrible, still. I just type everything.) 🙂
Comment by topdawg — April 10, 2004 @ 4:45 pm
CITIZENSHIP
Many times when I visit blogs, someone will say “read this” and I skip on by. If the name Mark Steyn or Victor Davis Hanson catches my eye, I’ll linger, but often in my hurried mornings I’ll miss out on…
Trackback by trying to grok — April 10, 2004 @ 3:34 am