Responsibilities of a Good Citizen
“Good citizenship” is when you properly fulfill your role as a citizen, or member of the United States.
There are many responsibilities of a good citizen. Many of these are similar to the responsibilities of a good student in school!
Good citizens…
Respect and protect the rights and property of others.
This can include:
Honoring another citizen’s privacy and personal space
Never taking another citizen’s things without their permission
Take part in the voting process when groups or communities decide something.
Make sure your voice is heard! Whenever an important decision needs to be made, we will often vote on what decision or actions will be taken by expressing our opinions. Leaders, like the US president, are chosen this way as well.
Describe or take actions that improve our community.
Just like you would clean up your workstation or help teachers with certain tasks, you can participate in community service projects to help everyone around you. The people below are helping to clean up a local park to protect nature.
Demonstrate self-discipline and self-reliance.
Good citizens not only need to know how to control and behave themselves, they also must learn to be independent. It’s okay to receive help from others sometimes, but you can’t always have other people do things for you or control how you behave.
Practice honesty and trustworthiness. Follow rules.
In almost all situations, it is not okay to lie about things. Lying can hurt others or give them the wrong idea about things. The more you lie, the less people will trust you and believe that you have good intentions.
One form of honesty is to follow rules. Rules are made for the safety and fairness of everyone. In the US, these rules are often called laws, which have bad consequences of you do not follow them.
