Personal responsibility essay

Older generations had trust in teachers that they could leave their children alone in a one on one setting and even employ corporal punishment if necessary.

My definition of personal responsibility is when someone takes ownership of a task, team or person weather they ultimately achieve success and or failure. Our education system is riddled with scandals and bouts of inappropriate relationships between faculty and students which ultimately have grave ramifications hindering these young people in their future and how they perceive the educational system. Today we are finding that this is no longer the case because not all people in positions of trust should hold their position. Many teachers have been caught having inappropriate relationships, assaulting the same children they are charged with educating and also, some teachers have chosen to neglect their “less capable” students.

I feel that if we begin taking responsibility for our actions early on, then our society would suffer less. People would begin holding themselves accountable for the things that they are doing, or thinking of doing. Our young students need their teachers taking responsibility for their actions. These things are damaging them far beyond the point where their studies are on the forefront of their mind. On the flip side of that statement, as our young students become adults, they must find a way to overcome the mental trauma that consumes them and creates a fray in their mental well being and detracts from their college success. If we begin to look at our long-term scholastic success in short-term increments, then I believe that overall, we will do better. Those students who consider the amount of knowledge that they gain vice just chasing that good grade will be more focused and should overall do better. It’s all about being accountable for ourselves.

The way that I will incorporate my plan to practice personal responsibility in my education is to decide whether or not I am having problems accepting personal responsibility. I feel that the best way to honestly accomplish this is to formulate a list of questions that focus on the “control” or lack thereof which others might or might not have over me. From there I will ask myself, the amount of times that I pass on the blame to others for something that I didn’t accomplish. Gauging these answers honestly and coming up with a solution to the problem will ultimately result in my scholastic success while in college. The website, Livestrong has come up with a great system to show you the proper steps in accepting personal responsibility.

“What are the steps in accepting personal responsibility?
Step 1: To decide if you are having problems accepting personal responsibility, answer the following questions in your journal:
a. How frequently do you claim that others have determined what you are today?
b. How easy is it to accept that you are responsible for your choices in life?
c. How easy it is to believe that you determine the direction your life takes?
d. How easy is it to blame others for where you are today?
e. What masks do you hide behind to avoid accepting personal responsibility?
f. How rational are you in dealing with the part you played in being who you are today?
g. How easy is it to accept blame or admit mistakes?
h. How easy is it to accept that you determine your feelings when negative events occur?
i. How easy is it to depend solely on yourself for acceptance, affirmation and approval?
j. How willing are you to be the sole determinant of the health of your self-esteem?
k. How frequently do you feel sorry for yourself?
l. How easy is it to let go of guilt if you stop rescuing those in your life?
m. How willingly do you take preventive steps to ensure your physical and emotional health?
n. How successfully have you practiced self-affirmation in your life?
o. How successfully have you practiced anger work out and letting go in order to get on with your life?

Step 2: Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5 as to the level of personal responsibility you have accepted in each of the following areas:
1 = always irresponsible
2 = usually irresponsible
3 = irresponsibility balanced out with responsibility (neutral)
4 = usually responsible
5 = always responsible
Rating Area in Life:
___ a. Taking the preventive and maintenance measures to ensure physical health

___ b. Taking the preventive and maintenance measures to ensure emotional health

___ c. Controlling weight and over-eating

___ d. Stopping smoking, excessive drinking and drug abuse

___ e. Controlling excessive gambling, shopping and sexual behavior

___ f. Controlling workaholism

___ g. Taking preventive and maintenance measures to ensure healthy relationships

___ h. Taking the necessary steps to overcome my current problems and troubles

___ i. Taking the necessary steps to protect myself from being victimized by my rescuing and enabling of others

___ j. Managing my time, managing the stress in my life, overcoming my fears and preventing burnout in my life

Score: A rating of 3 or less in any of the areas indicates a need to accept personal responsibility.

Step 3: Identify your beliefs that prevent acceptance of responsibility for yourself. Develop new, rational, replacement beliefs to help you accept responsibility for yourself.

Step 4: You are now ready to develop a plan of action. For each area of your life, identify that tools you will use to accept personal responsibility. The following Tools for Coping tools are available to help you determine your action plan: The Tools for Coping Tool Box.
Handling Irrational Beliefs
* Self-Affirmations
* Handling Guilt
* Building Trust
* Handling Insecurity
* Becoming Vulnerable
* Overcoming Fears
* On Becoming a Risk Taker
* Spirituality
* Time Management
* Stress Reduction
* Preventing Burnout
* Overcoming Perfectionism
Write your plan of action in your journal. Date and sign it. You are now ready to begin accepting personal responsibility.

Step 5: If you still have trouble in accepting responsibility for yourself, return to Step 1 and begin again.”

“Michael Korda, editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster once said "Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . . In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility" (Quotes on Responsibility). Personal responsibility can be defined as taking responsibility for one’s actions, including accepting the consequences of those actions. Responsibility is important to all learning and developing (Turning Teaching into Learning: The Role of Student Responsibility in the Collegiate Experience). Many factors contribute to a person’s eventual success in college. However, the student has a personal responsibility for his or her success. While families and instructors have some effect on a person’s success, each individual is personally responsible in his or her achievement in college. When a person enters adulthood, he or she has more personal responsibility in his or her life. With personal responsibility comes the freedom to make one’s own choices. The choices made affect a person’s goals. With this in mind, one can conclude that the choices a person makes will affect his or her success in college, whether negatively or positively. Some students use excuses to advert the responsibility of his or her failures from them. Excuses are self-serving explanations, or accounts (Schlenker, Pontari, & Christopher, 2001). According to some books and journals, people should be taught when they fail to shift responsibility from themselves to independent factors they cannot control. By using excuses, personal responsibility is reduced. When personal responsibility is reduced, performance is lowered. When entering college, the student has a responsibility to study, do his or her own work and maintain satisfactory grades. These responsibilities are critical for college success; therefore a student should take personal responsibility for them. As George Washington Carver said, “Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses” (Quotes on Responsibility

In conclusion, although not all educators out there harm children, it is an unfortunate truth that there are in fact teachers and educators out there who have chosen, and continue to neglect the “less capable” students. Moreover, it is painfully obvious that these same people are neglecting to accept personal responsibility and as someone in a position of trust, these people are assaulting students in some of the most deplorable ways. But most importantly, we have teachers and educators in place who are having inappropriate relationships with their students [our children]. So what can we do as parents to ensure that we are not sending our children into the arms of a sexual predator? We need to take a stand and request educational reform, harsher screening guidelines for our teachers and educators and more importantly, we must put more emphasis on the importance and value of their bodies.

Lawson, J. (2011). Accepting Personal Responsibility. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/14698-accepting-personal-responsibility/

Michael Korda (2012). Personal responsibility and college success. Retrieved from http://intothedepthsofthehumanmind.blogspot.com/2012/02/personal-responsibility-and-college.html