Youth from around the state participated in the first-ever Good Citizen Challenge last year. Students in grades K-12 completed a variety of civic-themed activities, such as visiting historic sites, drawing portraits of American patriots and doing good deeds like picking up litter. The challenge was organized by Seven Days and Kids VT, with support from the Vermont Community Foundation, and the young Vermonters who completed it gathered at the Statehouse in Montpelier on March 27. About 70 good citizens met Gov. Phil Scott and were recognized by the House of Representatives for their contributions to their communities. We spoke to the young people about what it means to be a good citizen and what they learned from this challenge.
Shooting date: 3/27/19
Music: “Be A Good Citizen”, by Pinhead ©1982 Pinhead Music
This episode of Stuck in Vermont was made possible by
New England Federal Credit Union
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2019.
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One of the poems by these good citizens begins: Run by the deep state. (If you pause the video, you can read it clearly.). And it gets worse. Did anyone actually read these submissions?
Hi Manitsky,
Yes, I did read all of these submissions. Many of the activities required students to demonstrate knowledge of state government or the U.S. Constitution. Some invited them to explore Vermont and U.S. history. Others emphasized participation in the community. And a few invited students to express their opinions in a variety of ways, encouraging them to use their voices to advocate for their beliefs.
The instructions for that activity were: “Write a poem about America.” We intentionally invited participants to interpret that in any way they chose, and they did! The submissions we received came from students all across the political spectrum, as you’ll see if you pause the video and examine the entries we included here.
You can find the scorecard and all of the activities at goodcitizenvt.com.