RESPONSIBILITY

Julie Urquhart, M.Ed., LMHC

School Adjustment Counselor

Shamrock Memorial Elementary School

Woburn Public Schools

Email: Jurquhart@woburnps.com
Location: 60 Green Street, Woburn, MA, USA
Phone: 1- 781-937-8241
Twitter: @mrsurquhartsac

Social and emotional learning (SEL) provides an array of benefits. Not only can it increase students’ academic achievement, but SEL activities can build students’ self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. All of these skills are important for students’ academic, social, and eventually, professional lives.

This month, I will be visiting classrooms and teaching a lesson about this month's character trait: Responsibility. We will read a book and or watch a video (selected book and videos will vary from grade to grade), have interactive classroom discussions and will do an activity while at the same time, encouraging teamwork and collaboration. Students will learn and discuss different ways we show responsibility, in school, at home, in our communities, toward one another and toward ourselves.

To be responsible means you do the things you are supposed to do and accept the results of your actions. It means doing the things you are suppose to do. Accepting responsibility means taking the praise or the blame for something you have done

To understand why responsibility is important, think about what life would be like if people don't act responsibly. If no one does what they say they will do, how can anyone trust each other? If no one is responsible about cleaning up after themselves how could we live in a healthy environment? If parents aren't responsible for their kids, and kids aren't responsible with their chores or homework... what would happen? What if other kids at the park weren't responsible and played in a dangerous way?

All of us in society need to act with responsibility if we want to live safely together.

MODEL RESPONSIBILITY

Build your own practice of responsibility within your home. Straighten things up, put things in order, pick things up, etc. As they say, more is caught than is taught. Children will pick up on your practices and start to integrate these practices in their own behavior.

LET YOUR CHLDREN HELP YOU OUT WITH SMALL JOBS

There are tasks that need to be done in our homes on a daily basis. Give your children the responsibility of some of these small tasks, like washing the dishes, taking the trash out, feeding their pet/s, cleaning a room etc...

BUILD IN A HOME JOB SYSTEM

This is similar to letting children help out, but creates a system for it.

PRAISE Children FOR BEING RESPONSIBLE

Hand out compliments willingly. If you praise children for being responsible all day long, you will have students rising to meet your expectations.

PROVIDE STRUCTURE SO THAT CHILDREN KNOW WHAT TO DO

Give clear directions and make sure your child knows your expectations. If they know what to do, they will know exactly how to show responsibility. Clear directions and plenty of scaffolding go a long way.

HAVE CLEAR CONSEQUENCES THAT MATCH THE LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY

Do they have a messy room? Clean it. Does your child not pick up what they drop on the floor? Clean it. Does your child leave their books out? Pick them up and a few more. If you have clear directions and the child knows the expectation, hold them to those expectations with clear consequences that align.

TALK ABOUT IT

Revisit this concept throughout the year. The more you make it upfront and central in your child's mind, the more they will realize the importance of it. Consider creating a weekly or monthly routine of revisiting some of these core character traits.

FOCUS ON ONE WAY TO BE RESPONSIBLE AND SHOW S YOUR CHILD YOU’RE LOOKING FOR

IT

Make it a challenge. Who can win a clean bedroom award? Who can pick up the most pieces of trash? Even over a period of time, who is bringing their dinner plate to the kitchen without reminders? Small challenges encompass several of the above tips and provide the ability to focus on one behavior over and over.

• “The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
• ‘I must do something’ always solves more problems than ‘Something must be done.’” – Author Unknown
• “If you mess up, ‘fess up.” – Author Unknown
• “When you blame others, you give up your power to change.” – Author Unknown
• “When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.” – Louis Nizer
• “Never point a finger where you never lent a hand.” – Robert Brault
• “If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.” – Les Brown
• “Though I am not always responsible for what happens to me, I am responsible for how I handle what happens to me.” – Zig Ziglar
• “Winners take responsibility. Losers blame others.” – Brit Hume
• “In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.” – Michael Korda
• “A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” – Bob Dylan
• “The price of greatness is responsibility.” – Winston Churchill
• “Mistakes are always forgivable is one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee
• “Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.” – Chuck Palahniuk
• “Every person who has changed the world has taken responsibility for something that mattered not just to them, but to mankind.” – Mike Stutman
• “There are two primacy choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept responsibility for changing them.” – Denis Waitley
• “With great power comes great responsibility.” – Voltaire
• “Quit making excuses. Putting it off. Complaining about it. Dreaming about it. Whining about it. Crying about it. Believing you can’t. Worrying if you can. Waiting until you are older. Make a plan & just do it.” – Nike
• “It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.” – Moliere
• “Nothing will ever change while you point the finger of blame. Out of responsibility comes possibility.” – Lisa Villa Prosen
• “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln
• “Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses.” – Mitt Romney
• “Every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity and obligation, every possession, a duty.” – John D. Rockefeller

I Just Forgot : by Mercer Mayer

Seedfolks: by Paul Fleischman

Arthur’s Pet Business: by Marc Brown

Strega Nona : by Tomie dePaola

Rocky Road: by Rose Kent

The Paperboy : Dav Pilkey

But It Not My Fault: by Julia Cook

Do I have To?: by Nancy Loewen

The Bernenstain Bears And The Blame Game: by Stan and Jan Berenstain

What if Everybody Did That? : by Ellen Javernick

The Girl Who Blamed The World: by Cindy M.

"I'll Do It": by Brain Moses and Mike Gordon

Topics for Discussion:

• Why is responsibility so important?
• What would the world be like if nobody practiced responsibility?
• Describe the most responsible person you know
• Do you consider yourself to be a responsible person? Why? In what ways?
  
• Think about somebody you know who is very responsible. How does that person demonstrate responsibility? Does that make you respect him/her more?
  
• Do you consider it important for your friends and family members to be responsible? Why?
  
• What does the golden rule have to do with responsibility?
  
• What is the relationship between blaming and responsibility?
  
• It’s been said that “There are no rights without responsibility, and there is no responsibility without rights.” What does that mean? Do you agree? What is the relationship between rights and responsibilities?
  
• What does being responsible have to do with the quality of your character?
  
• What are the benefits of being a responsible person? How do you benefit from the responsibility of others?
  
• What responsibilities do you believe you personally have for: 1) yourself, 2) your family, 3) your community, 4) the world?
  
• Describe something you’ve done that was really irresponsible. How did you feel afterward? What did you learn from it?
  
• Describe what this society might be like if nobody was accountable for their actions, if nobody kept their commitments.