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Wolford: Citizenship offers important lessons for today’s youth

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Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines citizenship as “the quality of an individual’s response to membership in a community.” 

A great way to practice citizenship is in schools as students learn to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, leaders, and good examples of patriotism before they go on to high school, college, and beyond. 

Students need to know that community comes in many forms and they need to understand what it means to be an accountable citizen in their classroom, their school, city, state, nation, and our world. 

Learning about citizenship is so much more than just a part of our academic standards at Freedom Traditional Academy (FTA). Here, citizenship is important to us because we strive for our students to believe in what our school stands for. 

Our campus mission and vision statements are very clear that developing great citizenship in our students is a vital and primary goal. 

There are many approaches to how we build a foundation of responsible citizens through student leadership at FTA. Our weekly flag ceremonies are led by our Student Council members. These ceremonies are patriotic and showcase student musicians. 

The Student Council leaders present character recognition awards to deserving students at the ceremonies. They lead guided informative campus tours to visitors and engage the school community in service projects. One successful national community project included raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

National Junior Honor Society students work as teacher helpers, and also read with and offer tutoring support to younger students. They are also currently hosting a food drive in order to serve our local community. 

Last year, they participated in Hall Bean Bag Day with the city of Surprise, helping to package pinto beans for those in need in our community. Additionally, our student Newspaper Club writes and publishes a monthly school newspaper called, “The Freedom Forum.” The opportunities the student paper provides allows students to showcase a variety of talents, like collaborating, interviewing, writing, and drawing.

At Freedom we have a Student Guild made up of 22 students representing seven grade levels. The focus of this group is to work with administration to improve their school experience and to make education better. An honest, open, and safe environment contributes to their success. These students’ voices matter and we do make changes as a result of their hard work.

Citizenship is also built in other ways. Freedom teachers frequently recognize exemplary students with Above and Beyond award tickets. Our campus hosts a patriotic Veterans Day assembly where students honor military families. 

We nurture students’ intrinsic desire to treat others with care and respect in order to improve the school climate and strengthen skills. 

An important part of our vision for citizenship at Freedom Traditional Academy is to create an active parent community through involvement at our school by attending events and volunteerism. 

We have a Parent Guild that achieves the same goals as the student group, but from their perspective. Our hope is that students will see this as an inspiring model. If we ensure that our students have a multitude of opportunities to become great citizens now, with the support of our staff and their families, the possibilities for them as valuable citizens beyond our school community are limitless. 

Editor’s Note: Wolford is the principal of Freedom Traditional Academy.