by Venie Gaki

Middle School adventures

Teaching Adolescents That They Are Part Of A Whole; How To Help Middle School Students Become Conscious Citizens

by Venie Gaki, Middle School Faculty

“A conscious citizen is someone who reflects on their value of being and personal responsibility to define and achieve their higher purpose, builds awareness, interconnectivity, and relationships among all living things in our community and our world, and empowers a harmonious engagement in committing resources and initiating actions to positively impact a sustainable quality of life.”

This is what we at ACS believe in, and this is the definition we decided upon after several meetings as a Conscious Citizenship Committee. But how can an adolescent reach the point of self-actualization to be selfless and contribute to something purposeful that is greater than themselves?( (Greene, & Burke, 2007). As Maslow suggests, self-actualization transcends the self.

It’s a tough call, and given the psychology of the adolescent, it becomes much harder; adolescents can be frivolous, immature, spontaneous, and seem inconsiderate at times. How stereotypical this might sound, yet, it is true! However, all this is part of their search to discover their identity. In their effort to do so, this is when we, as educators and parents, have an obligation to intervene and lead them toward the right path.

And indeed, this is an educator’s ultimate goal: to instill knowledge, not only to facilitate the learning process but to instill in the students the desire and the passion for serving a bigger purpose.

This is the reason why I expose my students to the Declaration of Human Rights and scaffold the text, analyze it and paraphrase it. They do love the process; they truly enjoy trying to comprehend and simplify such difficult discourse. However, it does not connect to their world; it does not activate their schemata; a 14-year-old adolescent of Generation Z cannot relate to what was happening in the world in 1948. Indeed, it is an invaluable document, a precious resource, and a necessary tool for everyone in order to comprehend the importance of human rights.

So, how could they make the declaration theirs? How could they connect and relate to it?

How could they find a bigger purpose to serve after having read it?

The answer was reached after a very long discussion in class that concerned how we could apply this text to our reality, community, and everyday life.

English Language Learners at the advanced level (ESL 2) read the Declaration of Human Rights, drafted in 1948, and went on to write their own Manifesto with which they would help Middle School students understand their rights, but also their responsibilities and obligations as members of the school community. With this Manifesto, they would be able to publicly declare their intentions, motives, and views in an effort to help students become conscious citizens and make sure that every student in the school feels included. It was easy; after all, our students are familiar with democratic processes where they collectively develop classroom rules.

Of course, not every single right could relate to student life; they picked the articles with which they could connect and made them applicable to school life.

They worked on it collectively, in groups, as they had to simplify and group them and also made a poster to promote this document and make it known to the public.

draft such a document, or one might claim that we know all this, that we, in the 21st century, are aware of children’s rights and respect them, but I wonder; is there a chance we might take them for granted? Is there a chance that we might be good in theory but not in practice and neglect implementing them at all times? After all, isn’t this why the declaration of human rights was drafted? TO REMIND HUMANS THAT WE ARE ALL EQUAL and to avoid past atrocities. And this is what ESL students wanted to do; to REMIND STUDENTS THAT THEY ARE ALL EQUAL and avoid unfortunate incidents of the past, such as cyber-bullying or exclusion and taunting.

The result was incredible, but most importantly, it was meaningful.