Citizen Responsibilities Know Your Responsibilities

Objective By the end of the lesson, students will be expected to be able to explain why it is important to do their civic duties.

What is a Responsibility? A Responsibility is something that you either have or should do.

What is a Citizen Responsibility? A Citizen Responsibility is something that you either have to or should do as a person that lives in the United States.

A list of your Mandatory Citizen Responsibilities! Mandatory - Things you have to do or else you will be punished. Mandatory Responsibilities Paying Taxes Obeying Laws Serving as Witness Jury Duty Registering for the Draft

A List of your Voluntary Responsibilities Voluntary - Things that you choose to do Voluntary Responsibilities Voting Volunteering

Paying Taxes Mandatory Citizen Responsibility! (you have to do it!) You must pay taxes to the government so that the government can run schools, give people healthcare, food, fix roads, and create and keep parks clean and much more

Obeying Laws Mandatory Citizen Responsibility (you have to do it!) You have to obey laws because if you do not we will have chaos! People may steal, kill, drive as fast as they want etc!! What do you think is the most important law(s)?

Serving as a Witness Mandatory Responsibility (you have to do it) If you see a crime happen, a court can ask you to come and tell the court what happened. You have to come! This is necessary because if you do not serve as a witness then our Justice system might fall apart. It depends on people to share evidence so the jury can decide if the person on trial is innocent or guilty!

Jury Duty Mandatory Responsibility (you have to do it!) As a U.S. citizen must serve on a jury. This is important because the court system needs a jury. A jury is made up of U.S. citizens. A jury decides if someone is innocent or guilty. If there is no jury, there is no court!

Registering for the Draft Every male citizen over the age of 18 must register for the draft. The draft is a way for the country to get people to go to war in a time of emergency, or national crisis. This is necessary because if the United States needs to defend itself, it must be able to have soldiers.

Voting Voluntary Responsibilities (Things you can choose to do) All U.S. citizens over 18 has the right to vote. You can choose to vote, you are not forced to vote. However, imagine if no one voted we wouldn’t have a government! That means we would not have any government services such as police officers, schools, hospitals, community centers, etc!

Volunteering Voluntary Responsibility (Things you choose to do!) Volunteering means that you help out somewhere in your community without being paid. It is important to volunteer because there are many jobs that do not pay but are really necessary! For instance, working at a soup kitchen, cleaning up a park, volunteering at a hospital, helping build houses for poor people Volunteering in your community makes it a better place to live!

Conclusion/Key Points Doing your Citizen Responsibilities are necessary for the survival of the United States Citizen Responsibilities include, paying taxes, obeying laws, serving as a witness, jury duty, registering for the draft, voting, and volunteering

Discuss the following questions as a group. Group Work Discuss the following questions as a group. Why is important to do or participate in your citizen responsibility? What would America look like if people did not participate in this citizen responsibility?

Public Service! Create a public service announcement about the one citizen responsibility you think is the most important. On one side draw a picture that goes along with that responsibility, and on the other side explain why you think that responsibility is the most important! The best public service announcement will be put up around the school!