The Law Practice of Christopher Schiller
Contact: chris@christopherschiller.com -- cell/L.A. 213.804.5905 -- phone/NY 518.489.1691

Course Description

Citizenship

Taught at Sage College of Albany, NY.
(First session - Spring Semester 2008)

Required Texts

Readings to be assigned by instructor during the course of the semester.

Course Description (Catalog Description)

"This course focuses on understanding issues that students will encounter as corporate, organizational, national, and global citizens from both legal and ethical perspectives. The course will explore the historical and cultural development of our rights as citizens of the United States and the significance of citizenship issues in a diverse society, both in a domestic and international context, in the modern world. The individual's duties and responsibilities as workers, consumers, voters, leaders and human beings will be explored in an effort to understand the diverse perspectives and conflicting demands on people in their various citizenship roles. Particular emphasis will be placed on the development of the rights and freedoms of American citizens in relation to the government, including a thorough introduction to, and an analysis of, the Bill or Rights and the legal principles that apply to and underlie those rights. The course will cover several contemporary ethical, legal, political and social topics."

Course Purpose

The question of what is it to be a citizen has as many definitions as there are people. This course will be geared toward allowing each student to explore their own definitions for citizenship with exposure to multiple points of view and perspectives of others. This course lends itself very readily to the traditional Socratic method of teaching, guiding the curious student to research into the depths of their own questions for answers that resonate.

The aim is to instill within students an ability to intimately understand the concept of citizenship and to articulate the legal, ethical and political implications of what it entails in being a good citizen in all the word's definitions. Not only will the rights of citizenship be expressed but also the responsibilities that are equally ingrained in the citizenry that serves the organization, nation, and planet.