What is Citizenship?

: Inquiry Activity Use the links below and the attached article to help answer the questions below. Be prepared to use your findings in a class discussion. A. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/government/civics.htm B. http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.749cabd81f5ffc8fba713d10526e0aa0/?vgnextoid=4d4 a9b66f5e3a210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=39d2df6bdd42a210VgnVCM100000b92c a60aRCRD 1. Using sources A and B, identify between 5-10 ideas about American citizenship that you were unaware of. Evaluate these. Are they necessary for citizenship in your view? Why or Why not?

C. http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-pol/#SH9a (Look at 9 a. and b.) D. A quote from Pericles: Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and, instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. Excerpted from Thucydides (c.460/455c.399 BCE): Pericles' Funeral Oration from the Peloponnesian War (Book 2.34-46). Pericles was a famous Greek General and Statesman in Ancient times. 2. What are the main messages of Sources C and D?

3. To what extent do you agree with the main messages of Sources C and D?

4.Excerpts from President Obamas 2012 acceptance speech at the DNC, Sept. 6, 2012: But we also believe in something called citizenship a word at the very heart of our founding, at the very essence of our democracy; the idea that this country only
works when we accept certain obligations to one another, and to future generations.

Because we understand that this democracy is ours.

We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense. As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. What message is the President conveying about the role of citizenship in America? To what extent do you agree? Explain.

5. Read the opinion piece by General Stanley McCrystal. Write a response in the form of a letter to the editor about his article entitled Step Up for Your Country located here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/01/23/step-up-for-your-country.html Click here for help in composing a letter to the editor: http://www.awcnet.org/documents/WriteLettertoEditor.pdf Click here for sample letters to the editor: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/mediaNewspaperLetter2Ed.cfm