ity

Among other talks that I enjoyed, I have been briefly thinking about the "-ity" talk. The term "personal responsibility" came up a few times today, and while I don't want to launch into a rant of what I do and don't see in the world in terms of responsibility, I have a hilarious/not hilarious example of lack of personal responsibility!

One of the teachers at our school noticed that a bag of candy she had on her desk was missing after a parent had been in her room. When the parent was confronted, the parent's reaction was, "So? I'll give you a buck for it!"

Yes. This actually happened. What does that tell your kid? It's okay to steal as long as you pay for it afterwards? It's okay to steal, especially if no one calls you on it? You were hungry, and that's your excuse. You would pay it back later, and that's your excuse?

I have a student who will get in trouble, and try to offer up every excuse in the world for the reason that he couldn't possibly have obeyed that rule at that time. AN-NOY-ING. I hope he grows out of it, because some adults don't. In third grade, this sounds like, "Well he was talking to me, so I had to tell him to be quiet so he wouldn't talk to me, and he was talking first, and he wouldn't leave me alone, etc. etc."

There are people in my own life that could have said, well, hey, this happened to me, and my family was like this, so I don't have to behave appropriately, or make good choices, because that's my excuse. Instead, they decided they had the ability to choose the RIGHT regardless of family or other circumstances. I have been blessed by them because of their ability to take personal responsibility.

I'm just sayin', I agree, I think the world could use just a bit more personal responsibility. And now I will look at myself, and see how I can better incorporate personal responsibility, along with charity, honesty, etc. into my life.