Responsibility
Meaning of Responsibility
* Responsibility is taking care of your duties.
* Responsibility is answering for your actions.
* Responsibility is accountability.
* Responsibility is trustworthiness.
Why Being Responsible is Important
* Responsibility is a core value for living honorably.
* Responsibility is being accountable for your behavior.
* Responsibility is being dependable when you have things to do.
Examples of Responsibility
* You complete your chores at home without being constantly reminded.
* You take good care of your personal possessions.
* You come home on time.
* You call your parents if you are late.
* You eat healthy food, get plenty of exercise, and take good care of yourself.
* You take care of your lunch money and don’t lose it on the playground.
* You keep a promise.
* You put part of your allowance into a savings account instead of spending it all.
* You complete your school assignments on time and to the best of your ability.
* You take care of your pet.
* You return library books on time.
Responsible Children
* Understand and accept consequences for their actions and try to correct their mistakes.
* Complete assignments and tasks.
* Clean up after themselves.
* Do the “right thing” and apologize if wrong.
* Help others in need.
* Follow through without giving up.
* Understand the effect they have on others.
Proverbs and Maxims
* Ideas don’t work unless we do.
* He who is not ready today will be even less so tomorrow.
* If everyone sweeps in front of his own front door, all the world would be clean.
* What is popular is not always right. What is right is not always popular.
More Quotes on Responsibility
* Responsibility educates. (Wendell Phillips)
* The price of greatness is responsibility. (Winston Churchill)
* No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility. (Gerald Johnson)
* Man is still responsible. His success lies not with the stars but with himself. (Frank Williams)
Steps to Making Responsible Decisions
* Define your goal. What do you want?
* Explore all the choices and options.
* Gather information and facts.
* Write down arguments for and against each choice.
* Take time to think through the consequences of each choice.
* Make the decision.
Put Responsibility into Action
* Clean your room without being asked.
* Throw away your trash and pick up some litter.
* Practice self-control when you feel angry.
* Clean up your area after lunch and encourage your friends to do the same.
* Follow through on all assignments at school and chores at home.
* Do your chores at home without being asked.
* Look for something extra to do at home or in your community that is helpful.
* Organize a park cleanup.
* Keep a promise even if it is hard.
* Express your anger with appropriate words and actions.
Community Service Ideas
* Clean up your own back yard by collecting rubbish and recycling items around the school and home.
* Organize a graffiti cleanup party.
* Volunteer at a local community center helping younger students with recreation, crafts, and other activities.
* Sponsor a canned food drive at your school.
Many Types of Responsibilities
* MORAL RESPONSIBILITY to other people, animals, and the earth. This means caring, defending, helping, building, protecting, preserving, and sustaining. You’re accountable for treating other people justly and fairly, for honoring other living things, and for being environmentally aware.
* LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY to the laws and ordinances of your community, state, and country. If there’s a law you believe is outdated, discriminatory, or unfair, you can work to change, improve, or eliminate it. You can’t simply decide to disobey it.
* FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY means treating your parents, siblings, and other relatives with love and respect, following your parents’ rules, and doing chores and duties at home.
* COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY. As a part of the community, you’re responsible for treating others as you want to be treated, for participating in community activities and decisions, and for being an active, contributing citizen. Pick up trash to keep the community clean. Read local and community newspapers to stay informed. Vote in elections when you’re old enough.
* RESPONSIBILITY TO CUSTOMS, TRADITIONS, BELIEFS, AND RULES. These might come from your family, your community, your heritage, or your faith. Learn what they are and do your best to respect and follow them.
* PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. It’s up to you to become a person of good character. Your parents, teachers, religious leaders, scout leaders, and other caring adults will guide you, but only you can determine the kind of person you are and ultimately become. So get organized, be punctual, and honor your commitments.
How to Plan to Carry Out Obligations
* Write a list of all the things you need to do.
* Write down when each task or job needs to be done.
* Write down what you’ll need to accomplish each task or job.
* Always have a back-up plan – a “plan B.”
More Activities
* Tell about an experience where you exhibited or did not show responsibility.
* Think of a new skill or talent you’d like to develop. Practice and share.
* Write a poem, jingle, paragraph, or saying about responsibility.
* Research discoveries and inventions that have had both positive and negative consequences.
* Consider whether math makes you more responsible. Cite examples.
* Research responsibility in advertising.
* Research responsibility toward indigenous people. Choose a country that was taken from natives by invaders, setters, or foreign governments.
* Survey your neighborhood to see who needs help.
* Write a skit that demonstrates your school’s rules.
* Find a job or start your own business such as a yard service or babysitting.
* Make a family jobs chart.
* Create a responsibility tree to show what you are responsible for doing.
* Make your own daily planner.
* Find examples of popular music that promotes responsibility, dependability, and perseverance.
* Examine the role of responsibility in sports.
* Play a “What’s Their Responsibility?” game for various careers.
* Read stories about responsibility.
BOOKLIST for RESPONSIBILITY
Grades K-4
Value of Responsibility: Ralph Bunche – Johnson
Brother Eagle, Sister Sky – Jeffers
Horton Hatches the Egg – Dr. Seuss
Arthur Babysits – Brown
Berenstain Bears: Messy Room – Berenstain
Annie and the Skateboard Gang – Carlson
Bear and Bunny Grow Tomatoes – Koscielniak
Stop, Look and Listen, Mr. Toad – Petty
Katy and the Big Snow – Burton
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie – Roop
A Light in the Attic – Silverstein
Where the Sidewalk Ends – Silverstein
Salt Boy – Perrine
Shoe Shine Girl – Bulla
Two Bad Ants – Van Allsburg
School’s Out – Hurwitz
It Takes a Village – Cowen-Fletcher
Red Light, Green Light, Mamma & Me – Best
Franklin Plays the Game – Bourgeois
D.W. the Picky Eater – Brown
Valentine – Carrick
Solo – Geraghty
A Very Important Day – Herold
Little Brown Bear Dresses Himself – Lebrun
Nine for California – Levitin
Badger’s Bring Something Party – Oram
The Paperboy – Pilkey
Shaker Lane – Provensen
One Up, One Down – Snyder
Another Mouse to Feed – Kraus
Herbie’s Troubles – Chapman
Pigsty – Teague
Sachiko Means Happiness – Sakai
Strega Nona – De Paola
Swimmy – Lionni
Tell Me a Mitzi – Segal
Amos and Boris – Steig
Five Minutes Peace – Murphy
Luke’s Bully – Winthrop
Horton Hears a Who – Seuss
Little Red Hen
Mother’s Day Mice – Bunting
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge – Fox
Arthur’s Pet Business – Brown
Arthur’s Computer Disaster – Brown
Star Wars: a New Hope
Making the World – Wood
Whem Mom Turned into a Monster – Harrison
I Did It, I’m Sorry – Buehner
Grades -3-6
Across Five Aprils – Hunt
The Book of Virtues – Bennett
A Christmas Carol – Dickens
Hatchet – Paulsen
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson – Lord
The Indian in the Cupboard – Reid Banks
Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell
Profiles in Courage – Kennedy
Stone Fox – Gardiner
Tuck Everlasting – Babbit
The Yearling – Rawlings
The River – Paulsen
Buffalo Bill & the Pony Express – Dadey
In Trouble with Teacher – Demuth
Julie – George
Nothing But Trouble, Trouble, Trouble – Hermes
Marvin Redpost: Alone in His Teacher’s House – Sachar
Learning About Responsibility from the Life of Colin Powell – Strazzabosco
Fudge – Graeber
Dicey’s Song – Voigt
Little House in the Big Woods – Wilder
Malu’s Wolf – Craig
Summer of the Swans – Byars
When the Road Ends – Thesman
The Giver – Lowry
Author Unknown
– Author Unknown