We Must Teach Responsibility — Kids Can't Succeed Without It
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues that personal responsibility is one of the most important things schools can develop in students.
Key Takeaways
- Responsibility is essential for adult success - No amount of academic knowledge compensates for a lack of personal responsibility
- Schools must teach it - If families aren't instilling responsibility, schools are the last line of defense
- Structure builds responsibility - Deadlines, consequences, and expectations all contribute to developing responsible habits
Transcript
If you don't believe in teaching kids to take responsibility for their actions, maybe just quit.
Maybe this is not the profession for you because we are not in the business in education of helping kids be kids forever, right?
We're in the business of helping kids develop, and that means academically and in terms of their responsibility, their ability to get along with other people, so that when they grow up, they can be functional adults.
And so much of what I see going wrong with school discipline and approaches to responding to trauma is that they assume the kid is going to be a kid forever and we can just shelter them from the consequences of their own actions.
We can take full responsibility for their behavior for them so that that's never something that they have to worry about.
But the problem there is they grow up and they do have to worry about it.
They do have to be responsible for themselves and their own choices.
So this comment here that you see about stop blaming children was in response to a story that I shared about a fourth grader punching his principal in the face when he didn't get his way.
And I'm okay with blaming that student for that behavior.
Like if you willfully kind of in cold decision-making mode, punch your principal in the face, you are responsible.
And then, you know, we can call that blame or we can call that responsibility, but Like, that's how it works.
And if that kid continues to do that kind of thing, maybe doesn't face consequences for it or doesn't get the help they need to change that behavior, well, that kid is soon going to be not a kid anymore, but an adult who is doing that same kind of thing, and they're going to face much more dire consequences as a result.
So I just think we have to remember that kids...
grow up, right?
Like, don't get a kitten if you don't want a cat because they grow up.
And when we are teaching kids, we're not just teaching kids who are going to be in this kind of state of suspended animation where we can take responsibility for them because they're babies forever.
They're not.
They're If you don't want that responsibility, don't be an educator.
Like we are in the business of creating adults who are ready for life, not just watching over kids temporarily forever.
Like I just don't understand this mindset of their kids, you know, treat them like they're only ever going to be kids.
Let me know what you think.