Responsibility

Meaning of responsibility

• Responsibility is taking care of your duties.
• Responsibility is answering for your actions.
• Responsibility is accountability.
• Responsibility is trustworthiness.

Why is being responsible important

• Responsibility is a core value for living honorably.
• Responsibility is being accountable for your behavior.
• Responsibility is being dependable when yo 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 mistake
• 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

Heroes and heroines

• Eddie Akau - was a well-known surfer with great strength of character and a willingness to sacrifice for others. As a lifeguard, he saved over a thousand people.
• Nellie Bly - was a newspaper reporter who advocated women's rights and exposed terrible conditions in the slums, hospitals, factories, prisons, and orphanages.
• Thomas Jefferson - was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. As president, he tried to reorganize the courts of law, establish a system of public education, and guarantee religious freedom.
• Eleanor Roosevelt - modeled civic and national responsibility as a social activist.
• Harry S. Truman - as president, never shirked his duties and always accepted full responsibility for his decisions.
• Booker T. Washington - founded the Tuskegee Institute, a school for blacks, and promoted improving job skills.

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 jobs needs to be done.
• Write down what you'll need to accomplish each task or job.
• Always have a backup 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 promote responsibility, dependability, and perseverance.
• Examine the role of responsibility in sports.
• Playa "What's Their Responsibility?" game for various careers.
• Read stories about responsibility.

BOOKLIST for RESPONSIBILITY

For 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

For 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

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