1995-1996 Harry Singer Foundation National Essay Contest
Responsibility Who Has It And Who Doesn't
And What That Means For The Nation
Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
Teachers : Mike Hubka / Jana Lindley
1st
Jolinda Wiske 
2nd Christian Goering 3rd Carol Clarke
"In addition, we need to elect responsible people to public offices to be role
models for others. After spending a day as a page in the state capital, I can see that
elected officials do not take their job seriously. I sat in both the Senate and the House
of Representatives and listened. When someone would introduce a bill or talk, almost
everyone else ignored the person talking. They were busy talking to the person next to
them or talking on the phone. One lady trying to speak, quit talking in the middle of her
speech because there was so much commotion. Very few noticed she had stopped speaking. If
the senators and representatives do not listen, how are they to know how to vote? How are
we to learn responsibility if your 'leaders' do not have any? This really concerned me. If
we elect responsible officials, I think this would spread responsibility to others."
Carol Clarke, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Sports teach the youth valuable lessons such as excellent work ethics, how to
play as a team, how to manage your time well, how to set goals, and strive to achieve
them. It also gives the youth a sense of pride and accomplishment. Other organizations
such as Boy Scouts and 4-H teach the youth to give back to the community in which they
live. Church youth groups are a good way to instill good morals in the youth and allow
them to associate with people who share the same ideas and beliefs about how a person
would live."
Greg Seiler, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"After thinking very hard on a solution that I can share with people to cause them
to accept responsibility I came up with one. . . .I [will] take it upon myself to take
complete responsibility for all the actions that I commit and hope that others will follow
in my foot steps!"
Fischer Rodney, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Children learn at a young age to place blame elsewhere instead of taking
responsibility. They learn this from their parents and family. They become afraid that if
they do take the blame, they will lose the love or trust of their parents and be punished.
Parents need to tell the children they will not lose their love but they need to take the
blame if something was their fault."
Carol Clarke, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Honor codes are another way to teach ethics in schools without having a set program. Honor codes provide a way of enforcing academic accountability, they also provide the students with respect for classmates, teachers, and themselves. Along with teaching respect it can also teach integrity. From the start students are teaching other students. In any school the attitude toward a teacher or another student will prevail.
Here is an example of how the honor code works and why America schools need it. Greg, a
high school senior, reported four of his classmates cheating on a test. Several of his
classmates backed him up, and others agreed that he did the right thing. An equally large
number said he was 'ratting' on his classmates and he did the wrong thing. Greg turned in
his classmates because he believed in the honor code. With the honor code, more and more
people might learn from Greg's example and start being truthful to the teachers. If the
honor code is enforced, I think students would be less likely to cheat on a test. The
honor code gives. . .moral guidance to the students who use it. This moral guidance gives
the young people an understanding that will help them as they are becoming adults. They
learn that the good of others as individuals or as a group is also good for them as well
as to the other people."
Mary Hagood, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"I think if we, as a nation, want to return to the era of responsibility, we need to start with the family. Parents need to take the initiative by teaching their children responsibility. The parents should instill family values and morals so children will understand obligations and consequences. When parents teach their children accountability, their children will in turn, hopefully, pass it on to the next generation. People will take notice of this and learn the trait.
I also think families and others who make decisions need to share the responsibility of
making a decision. Parents need to allow the children to suffer from the consequences of
their decisions instead of protecting them from reality. By doing this, children will
learn the importance of thinking thoroughly through the possible consequence of their
actions before making a decision."
Carol Clarke, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Our family has a tendency to lock ourselves out of the house. A key was at our grandma's house for emergencies. However, one Sunday we locked ourselves out of the house, Grandma and Grandpa were out of town. Then as a back up measure we also had a key in the garage. But, on this Sunday the key wasn't in the garage. It was like a three ring circus. One would say to the other, 'I thought you put the key back.'
The next would say, 'No, I thought you did!'
The quarreling was useless. The point is someone did not take the responsibility to put
the key back and left Dad feeling money was wasted unnecessarily on a locksmith."
Jamie Ward, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"The President, Bill Clinton, and Congress have been disputing over a plan to balance the budget and improve the economy. Instead of taking responsibility and compromising on a plan, they just quarrel back and forth and waste valuable time. It is this kind of activity that causes the nation to lose heart.
When the youth of America watch their government and their parents avoid responsbility,
it makes it easier to justify their own lack of responsibility. It destroys the sense of
pride they feel for their country and even causes a loss of respect for the family. This
adds to the many reasons why the nation's youth join gangs and commit crimes. It is hard
to do what is right when the people around you are doing the exact opposite."
Greg Seiler, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Another person who took matters into his own hands during a tragedy is ten year
old Larry Little. Larry and nineteen other children were on their way to school when their
bus driver had a major stroke and abruptly fell to the floor. Larry ran up, took hold of
the steering wheel, and stomped on the brake. Larry saved the lives of all the students on
the bus that day. Larry still does not see why everybody has made such a big fuss over
this accident. This was very responsible thing for a ten year old boy to do."
Shauna Boor, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"'Teaching Tolerance' teaches the teachers how to foster racial harmony among
their students. 'Learning by Serving' is having the kids go out and perform so many
non-schools hour of service by working in hospitals, libraries, nursing homes, etc.
'Learning from the Past' teaches the kids the difference between good and evil by studying
different events that have happened in history. 'Creating a Community' teaches schools to
practice what they teach. This means that they encourage the kids to go out and do their
homework and to treat others with respect. They want them to take responsibility. They
want the students to learn and to do their work."
Mary Hagood, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Acts of kindness do not have to be heroic. They can be as simple as having
sportsmanship during a ball game and not getting outraged when a referee makes a bad
call."
Rachel Ann Smith, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas "Responsibility is very important in families today. One
reason why the United States has fallen on hard times is the lack of responsibility in
Families. The divorce rate gets higher every year, as does teeen pregnancy. Both of these
are important issues that could be solved if families could show some responsibility. If
families would communicate and show their love for one another, they could work out many
of the problems they face. I am very lucky, my family is very close. Everyone lives pretty
close togethr, so I get to see them quite often. Whenever I have a ball game, or something
like that, I can always count on having my own cheering section there to watch me. It does
not matter where the game is or what time it is, if it is possible for my family to be
there, they will. There are not many kids who are lucky enough to have a family this
caring. Since they are so loving, I feel responsible for doing little things to show my
appreciation. I am not going to do anything that would hurt or embarrass them. I try to
give back to them what they have given to me by just being an all-around good kid.
Responsibility to your family is the most important aspect in life. If everyone was
responsible to their family, the world would be a much better place."
Ryan Cunningham, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas "In conclusion, the town of Medicine Lodge has proven to be
a responsible community. People care about other people and what happens in their lives.
When an award or honor is given to someone in the community everyone congratulates that
person… Vandalism in Medicine Lodge is now very minimal. It shows that a community
can pull together to stop a small problem if everyone is willing."
Christian Zachary Goering, Medicine Lodge Rural High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"The local Pilot Club donates teddy bears to the police, fire fighters, and
ambulance crews to give to children who have been involved in an emergency, such as a car
accident or a fire."
Mindy J. Kline, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"250 pharmacists estimated there were 16,000 medication errors in their
institutions alone, 106 of them resulting in patient deaths. If this estimate is right,
then in the United States there are over 200 million medication errors yearly. Generally
speaking, most nurses, doctors, pharmacists, etc. rely to heavily on each other not to
make mistakes, without checking on each others work as they should. If these groups would
try harder to back each other up, a majority of these errors would be alleviated.
Hospitals spend a lot more time and money worrying about whether you got properly charged,
than whether you got the wrong drug."
Halee Meador, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Sometimes teens feel as if they do not have enough time for the bottle, so they
are forced to choose between school and alcohol, and education seldon wins. After an
amount of time alcohol causes depression, and teens feel helpless and alone."
Jessica Morrison, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"The children's need for love is sometimes clearly less understood by some
parents. Sometimes, parents are so busy providing for the tangible needs of the children
that they are unaware of an immense need for love. No other work a parent can do is worth
so much as to love their children."
Samantha K. Myers, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"My personal contribution to the problem of waste pollution in the nation is the
recycling of Styrofoam. Fact is that Styrofoam will not start to degrade until seven
years. So, take all Styrofoam and recycle it like we do aluminium and glass and use it for
insulation . The insulation produced can be used to insulate low income houses. This would
provide better housing for the poor at a low cost and eliminate waste in the
landfills."
Heather Norton, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"The drug store took $2000 dollars worth of tobacco products outside and burned
them. . . .Every store should follow this example. The stores should put health products
in the front of the store and tobacco products in the back or not carry them at all."
Karin Prestegord, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Who is responsible for pollution? The people, the industries that hire the people
to run their machines of pollution, or the city itself, for not setting regulations on the
industries in the first place. In every town the responsibility is passed from one party
to the next."
Justin Trantham, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"'Dead-beat Dad' has become a popular term in our society. the term dead-beat dad
is referring to millions of irresponsible fathers in this country, who do not pay their
child-support. When a dad does not pay his child-support he is not only hurting the
ex-wife/mother of his children, but he is depriving his offspring of their needs. These
fathers may believe their children do not understand the concept of child-support; in
reality children know more than he may think. When their father does something to hurt
their mommy, children will pick these signals up quickly."
Kialee Jean Underwood, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"Another responsible thing that people are starting to do is to make supervows
before they get married. These are vows that state that the couple will go above and
beyond the promises they made to each other in the regular wedding vows to be true to each
other and do everything they possibly can to make their marriage work."
Andrea White, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"It is something to see a group of kids striving for the same goal. The only thing
kids want to do is win. They will do anything: play harder, support their team, take on
the responsibility of getting to the top. . . .What if they showed that type of support
towards their government? . . .[but] government does not care about them. [It] may care
about school lunches and prayer in school but [does it] care about letting them go to
college, play sports or even get a proper education? . . .If we started to work as a tean;
one mind, one body, one soul, [could] turn this great nation."
Thomas Winter, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas
"The children of today are growing up in a tough world. Society is constantly
changing and presenting more and more problems for the youth to face everyday. Today's
youth … will be running the world in their future. It is very important that they are
taught the proper morals, values, skills, and, maybe most importantly, responsibility. The
children of today need to be raised properly so that they may have the strength, desire,
and will to face and deal with the problems of the future."
Jolinda Wiske, Medicine Lodge High School, Medicine Lodge, Kansas