A wise girl knows her limits.
A great girl knows she has none.

Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne write about civic responsibilities in their article, Educating the "Good" Citizen: Political Choices and Pedagogical Goals. In a democratic age, how can people be educated to be good citizens? First, what makes a democracy successful? Schools help students to develop a character that is respectful of the law and of other individuals. The minorities, when educated, can start to take action to reach their objectives. Or maybe democracy should be taught, with all its centuries-old ideals.

Essentially, the types of "good citizens" we need to support a democratic society could be categorized into three; the personally responsible citizen, who is responsible in his/her community by working, paying taxes, obeying the law, recycling, donating blood, and volunteering to help others during times of crises; the participatory citizen, who seeks improvement and is actively engaged in his/her community's organizations, knows how government agencies work and strategies for accomplishing group tasks, and lastly; the justice-oriented citizen, who with experience can critically judge and assess social, political, and economic structures, acts on justice, and is familiar with social movements.

Which one is more important?

As far as schools are concerned, students who are steered more in the direction of volunteer work and charitable activities don't know as much about politics, social movements and transformation, and systemic change. Schools who put kindness as their priority overlook social action and justice. Of course there's the other side too, those who know all about justice and democracy, but won't take any action to correct the faults they see. Can there be a balance; is it possible to have all three kinds of these visions?

Those people who are involved in educational curricula should be aware of this and choose carefully in order to foster good democratic citizens for our future.

I think we're doing a good job in HIS by encouraging students to be just and kind, helping and respecting other students in our small school community (although I'm a bit disappointed that community service was taken away, even though I wouldn't be able to go anyway). We have a fair amount of justice-oriented teaching too, as we talk about human rights, women's rights, and major social movements that made our world the way it is today. In my opinion at least, what we lack more is in the area of "participatory citizen." We always learn and discuss about issues and how we could contribute to its improvement or solution, but we rarely take any significant action.

"The world needs crazy ideas to change things, because the conventional way of thinking is not working anymore."

Could playing with cross dressing be healthy and why?
Cross dressing could make one more open minded about expressing oneself in different ways, but I don't think it's necessarily healthy or unhealthy to do it. Some people are comfortable being their own male/female selves, and others find cross dressing a fun activity. The benefits really depend on each individual, in my opinion.

Is cross dressing more difficult for boys or girls and why?
It seems like it's more difficult (but also more fun) for guys to dress as girls. We always see girls wearing pants and loose tee shirts, but it's really quite a sight to see a man in a skirt and close fitting clothes. So to see a girl cross dressing, it's not as surprising because it's not that much different from what many girls usually wear. We also see more "tomboys" than feminine boys.

Can gender binaries be blurred? And if so, what are the consequences?
It can be, and it is being blurred. I don't think there are any men than don't have even a little bit of femininity, and girls that don't have the least bit of masculinity. Maybe it's subconscious, but it's definitely there, and if encouraged by certain situations (like cross dressing) it becomes easier to blur that line between the male and female sexes. Since it's happening right now, the consequences can be seen anywhere and everywhere, but on a larger scale, people might not accept it or be comfortable with it at first. But people now, especially the younger generation, are becoming increasingly open minded and things like these are acceptable and no big news.

Parental involvement seems like a good idea, but overdoing it isn't. I think this should be something optional, but always available to parents if they're interested. Having a school right next to a company isn't too much of a thrill, though. Having parents visiting the school during lunch breaks just seems a little weird. If my parents were to get too involved with our school, it would put more pressure on me as a student. I just think there needs to be a balance.

I think everyone at our school would agree that there are many benefits in a small school. Students get more individual attention, it's easier to talk to faculty and everyone knows each other. All these things can help a students not only academically, but emotionally as well. In bigger schools, sometimes there are more problems, too many problems that the authorities can't handle. But on the other hand, a smaller school means less competition. Some people need competition to bring out their true potential.

Community service not only helps other people (the community) but is also beneficial to the person volunteering to do the service. On many occasions I have learned valuable lessons from doing community service, and these things can't be learned from a textbook in the classroom. Learning the importance of this early on really changes a person's perspective on it, and it can become something to look forward to rather than a chore. It would be great if everyone could go into society with this kind of mindset.

This is useful knowledge to have, especially when students become adults and have to deal with things like these in their lives. Getting students involved early on by incorporating real life scenarios, using things they care about, is a fun way to learn civics.

Extracurricular activities are very important. They can help a student with skills they already have and would wish to improve on, or find new interests that they didn't know of before. Overall, it helps one become a more well rounded person. Without extracurricular activities, something would just be missing from the school experience.

I really like this idea. It prepares students for the real world, and doing things like this makes them take on whatever their task is with responsibility and maturity. It's a good experience.