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September 16, 2004
Photograph of civic virtue assignment
Ideas like civil society, civic engagement, and civility all have definitive meaning in academic literature. Each of these ideas might have somewhat different meanings depending on which author is describing them. One of the most common questions the Civic Honors Project sounds like, “How do you take pictures of people helping other people in the community.”
Being able to get out a camera and take a photograph of civic virtue is actually a very difficult task. Next time you are talking to an academic about civil society, civic engagement, or civility suggest a class assignment for students to describe what the perfect photograph would look like. Some students will have no problem describing what civil society, civic engagement, or civility looks like, while other students will find the assignment very difficult.
One example of a potential photograph is of Graduation with Civic Honors. Next may when the first class graduates with civic honors from Johnson County Community College is an example of a perfect opportunity to take a picture. All of the students who received civic honors will have spent time throughout the last working to increase the level of civic engagement they are capable of while using reflective thought to define the current state of civility.
Taking a picture of civic virtue is a very challenging assignment for students of civil society, civic engagement, or civility. Describing what a photograph of civic virtue would look like is probably a more reasonable assignment for academics. The important part of this assignment is providing the lesson to students of what it is like to try to visual the ideas of civil society, civic engagement, or civility in a very real concrete way. Application of ideas to society is the most important way to make sure academics discussion lives up to a certain degree of validity.
304 words posted by nels lindahl at 11:51 PM
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