"What we have loved others will love, but we must teach them how." William Wordsworth seems to express with these words each generation's resolve to impart important truths to each successive generation. These truths include standards such as ethics, systems of values and a responsibility to live for the common good. However, we have come to a point in our society where parents seem to have abandoned the basic instinct of training their children to recognize and develop these principles. Their children pay the penalty and suffer from lack of values and the ability to take responsibility for themselves.

Parents, having abdicated their role in child training expect this void to miraculously be filled by others. They first turn to educational institutions since a substantial part of a child's life is spent at school. However, teachers, also seem loathe to fulfill this obligation to their students. An example of this is Professor Michael Petrik a New York County Community College professor of criminal justice, who supplied two inmates of a New York medium security prison with an implement to cut the prison's fence and upon their escape, drove them to Manhattan. Instead of standing for the justice system, he assisted in corrupting it. With role models such as this and with few guidelines from parents, students have difficulty developing personal responsibility.

Another institution on which parents can no longer rely to instill valuable principles is the media. Very effective advertisements urge buyers to "break the rules" and to "relax - no rules here" thus influencing the public to an amoral lifestyle. Recently, my mother attempted to find a birthday card suitable for one of my friends, but nearly all were unacceptable because they were tainted with tasteless humor and innuendo. Her explanation is that publishing companies no longer take responsibility for maintaining ethical values and high moral standards in the material they produce. Rather than trusting the media for quality material, parents must constantly guard from the continual barrage of immoral topics.

The erosion of standards overlaps into every area of society, including our national government. The American court system is deferring to those who would rather be victims than accept personal responsibility. Edward Cleveland, a pilot with an unsafe flying record is one example of this. To film a commercial, he attempted to control a plane from a rear seat while the cameraman was blocking the front window. He crashed, was injured and then sued the aircraft company. He alleged that because he could not see through the front window from the back seat, the plane was defective. Surprisingly, he won one million dollars. This ruling opened the door for more cases where "victims" will not be required to take responsibility for their own actions.

In hopes of reversing this trend, some are recognizing the necessity of imparting the age-old principle of personal responsibility. In a school in Kentucky, a student threatened his teacher's life. After graduating from her class he wrote to his "disciples" and urged them to continue his "campaign" to "push her over the edge". The teacher sued him for his malicious classroom behavior, and won $34,000. She argued that he needed "greater responsibility" for his classroom behavior. By taking a stand in her classroom, she demonstrated that students must pay for irresponsible behavior.

Some communities of our country are uniting to strengthen parents' efforts. In 1994, the mayor of Detroit, Michigan, Dennis Archer discovered that arson incidents tripled on Devil's Night. Twenty-five thousand volunteers answered his plea to intensify street patrols. As a result, the number of fires dropped significantly. This community effort enforced responsible behavior.

My grandparents volunteer each week to deliver meals to the elderly in their neighborhood through a program called "Meals on Wheels". Through their example, I can see the necessity of helping others, especially those less fortunate than I.

My grandfather also participates in a "Paint Your Heart Out Day": a community effort to paint houses for those who could not afford to otherwise. Because of his volunteer work, the owners of the houses believe that someone cares about them, and the project demonstrates how our efforts can improve the lives of others and upgrade society.

Because I have seen my grandparents' example, my friends and I distributed food at an outreach center during Christmas. Throughout the year, the same center provides food and clothing to needy people. The center was established by people who saw a need and strove to help people of all ages live a better life. It not only supports them, but provides an opportunity for me to contribute to my community.

Government programs can also augment parents' efforts with their children. One reading program provides incentives for children who learn to read, thus helping them better themselves. This program attempts to open children's minds through reading, and give the children an inner drive and love for reading. The benefits from a program like this are infinite: once a child's mind is opened to the wider world, he can base his life on what he has learned, responsibly building for his own future.

America must make a united effort to rebuild the values of our country's forefathers worked so hard to gain. Because the family unit is falling into disrepair, necessary virtues are not being imparted. My solution to this problem is to reinforce the family unit by parents teaching personal responsibility and requiring virtues such as honesty, industriousness, accountability, and kindness in children. Honesty can be taught by rewarding truthfulness, and disciplining dishonesty. Mandatory household chores and completed homework instill accountability. Making family time a priority, eating meals together and reading together strengthen the bonds of the family. Encouraging volunteering counteracts selfishness. "What a child has been taught to believe from youth makes not little difference, not some difference, but all the difference." Heeding this advice and teaching personal responsibility at home will bring about radical change in society."
Heidi Gerlach, Center Christian Academy, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania

"There once was a building known around the world for its strength and immovable structure. Every block, beam, and timber that made up this might building was of the highest quality, and without one of these essential elements, the building would have surely crumbled. However, something went wrong. A block decided that it was tired of being in the basement; it wanted to be a mighty beam. It felt that it had been cheated out of something better, and this thought soon grew quite contagious among the other blocks, beams, and timbers. They began to blame the builders for not giving them the positions they felt they deserved. They were tired of helping each other; they wanted to be praised for what they were doing for the building. Then the tragedy occurred. The mighty building began to crumble, and little by little, it fell apart until nothing was left but a heap of ruins.

This building represents our society, a society that was once the pride of the world, a society where no one minded helping each other, or striving for the good of the community, or even taking responsibility for their actions. However, something went wrong, and this once-model society began to fall apart. People grew selfish and wanted to have all the glory, and they didn't want to take responsibility for their actions anymore. Community spirit faded, and the importance of the individual grew. The consequences of one's actions didn't matter anymore, as long as one got what one felt he deserved.

Examples of this disintegration of society are innumerable. When a man was brought to trial for shooting his wife to death, he claimed that a sleeping disorder had made him do it. And, when a woman killed her son, she blamed her actions on her father. At the place where I work, many young men are employed to help maintain the building. Unfortunately, they are no exception to the growing trend of irresponsibility and dishonesty in today's youth. Instead of working diligently, they talk, loiter, or complain about their job. This constant neglect of responsibility is evidenced by the filthiness of the building; they want to get paid to do nothing. These aren't unique cases however, people nationwide are giving up on basic morals and asking to be compensated for wrongs they felt have been done to them. There is a nation wide sentiment that says, "Don't blame me for my actions anymore, I'm just a victim, and by the way, what do I get for being one?"

Fortunately, not everyone is ignoring this growing problem. In Lansing Middle School in New York, Phyllis Smith Hansen is teaching a class in character education on respect and responsibility in which she teaches values, honesty, and moral reasoning to primary and secondary students. The New Jersey Department of Education has instituted a set of "core values" for school education and councils that help them define commonly accepted values. The Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles, supports a Character Counts Coalition. Michael Josephson, the founder, believes that today's youth are nothing more than a collection of self-centered "I Deserve Its" who have a sad lack of commitment to honesty. He believes that "ethics are core ethical values that people of any faith should agree on." When property was intentionally damaged by youth in my neighborhood, the neighborhood committee held a meeting with all the parents. The committee gave them hints on how to keep their children out of mischief, and it scheduled monthly activities for the youth to participate in to help keep them out of trouble. In my school, we have a class devoted solely to respect and responsibility. These values are taught daily, and are essential to the success of both the students and the school.

I believe that, although helpful and beneficial in many cases, the aforementioned programs alone will not change our crumbling society. Although personal responsibility can be taught, it must be enforced in order to take hold in the lives of today's youth. If our society truly desires the next generation to be responsible and to advocate basic moral values, these ideals must be initiated in the home on a daily basis. Although this is no revolutionary idea or solution, I believe it is by far the most practical and likely to be the most effective. Programs established in schools are important and effective, but parents have to go one step farther by daily practicing these values they desire the next generation to embrace.

Education the parents about the importance of instilling responsibility and morals in their children and the steps involved in accomplishing this, should be one of the main goals of not only the school system and local governments but of the national government as well. Brochures could be made available concerning these essentials along with school and town meetings that inform and teach the parents how to teach their children responsibility and values. The promotion of healthy, moral role models by the media would also help arrest the decay of our society. However, there must be a nation-wide attempt and desire to institute these essential beliefs in the home before we can improve, or hope to improve the conditions outside the home.

We cannot afford to ignore the increasing problems in our society, especially the lack of personal responsibility and disintegration of moral and ethical values. Our society is crumbling like the building mentioned earlier, and it will fall if we don't deal with these problems now. There has to be a move on all sides towards improving the conditions in our society so that when today's youth grows up, their future will be better than the present. Most importantly, everyone must contribute towards the improvement of society and the reinstallment of personal responsibility in tomorrow's leaders. If everyone does contribute, then we can be assured that the mighty building will stand for many years to come."
Noel Weisenbacher, Center Christian Academy, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania

"Responsibility: it's more than just a buzzword in contemporary America, it's the bedrock of the freedoms we hold so dearly. America used to be the land of opportunity and dreams where personal responsibility was part and parcel of freedom, but now America is "the finger-pointing capital of the world", with people always shirking off responsibility and blaming their problems on others. This "victim culture" is rampant in America today.

In Norwich, New York, a 14 year old girl stabbed her boyfriend to death and then blamed her behavior on a personality disorder. In Lebanon, Ohio, a man beat, slashed, and choked a total stranger and his elderly mother - in their own home. He blamed the incident on a sleeping disorder. These two suspects were found not guilty of their crimes due to their "victim status". A prisoner in Houston, Texas had his sentence for two counts of murder reduced because the crime was not his fault, he was only the hit man.

These are only a few of the extreme tactics people have used to escape personal responsibility. "To be an American, however, is to be responsible - both for yourself and, as much as possible, for others ...A true American doesn't ask 'Who can I blame this on'...[but] 'What can I do about it today?'" If you look hard enough you will find a remnant of great Americans, not only taking responsibility for themselves, but also shouldering the responsibility of tackling many of the problems of society today. Every town and city in America has its own examples, including my home town; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

North-west of Pittsburgh lives Elias Demetrious Papanikolaou, a.k.a. "Uncle Lou" Pappan, who survived World War II in Greece on the contents of care packages from the Allies. Elias vowed then that if he should ever be in a position where he could repay the kindness of the Americans, he would do so. Decades after immigrating to the U.S. and building a chain of 34 restaurants from one small operation, Pappan continues to fulfill his promise. Committed to the belief that corporate America should be an important member of the community, Pappan manifests this belief in many ways. He has raised over $400,000 for charities and has been involved with many area organizations and hospitals. Pappan is best known for his annual picnic (with food, fun, crafts, and even free medical attention) which he holds for over 7,000 senior citizens. Mr. Pappan's Picnic is one of the many ways he says thank you to the people of America.

Travel south and soon you'll find yourself nearing the Washington City Mission. Founded over a half of a century ago, the Mission endeavors to meet "the challenge of caring for the hungry and homeless". The Mission provides over 6,000 free meals each month, and offers shelter for 65 homeless people every night. It helps break the grinding cycle of poverty through work and educational programs.

North-East of the mission, in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, is Children's Hospital. Two organizations have recently helped out at the hospital, a local radio station, KDKA, and a hometown favorite, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The KDKA morning team of Fred Honsberger and John Signa trekked across the region during December collection donations for the kids at Children's Hospital. The Steelers gave a cake to the children at the hospital to celebrate their AFC Championship victory. The cake was no ordinary one though, and it took up the hospital's entire front lobby.

About 14 miles east of Children's Hospital is the section of Allegheny County known as Forest Hills. There you can see the WTAE Television broadcasting tower. WTAE, Pittsburgh's ABC affiliate, has taken on a new challenge - delivering a "family-sensitive" newscast, in an attempt to take responsibility for what it shows to its audience. The station reports all the news, but good news doesn't come last, and the newscast does not focus on violent crime.

Children all over the region of south-western Pennsylvania are benefiting from Project Bundle-Up, sponsored by a local weatherman, Joe DeNardo, and a local Salvation Army. Mr. DeNardo visits area schools via helicopter to collect children's donations which are then spent on warm clothing for needy children during the harsh, cold winter months.

One of the areas of responsibility which is so lacking today is our responsibility to give back to our communities. I feel that a possible solution to this problem would be to fit community service into school curriculum. If every student had to do 50 hours of service between sixth grade and graduation, they would be giving less than a minute and a half each day, and yet the benefits would be invaluable. First, it would teach the values of the community, neighbors, and sharing. It would strengthen inter-community relationships as well as build understanding between the youth of America and other sectors of society. Secondly, it would have a positive effect on the community as well as the student. It would obviously help the surrounding area while also helping to improve the child's self esteem by instilling a sense of pride and accomplishment. Third, it would prepare the student to take part in the community in an active role. It would teach the child that he is a vital part of the system around him and that his community needs him. Above all, community service would be a great teaching tool, giving the students a chance to develop real life skills, hands-on experience, and preparation for becoming responsible adults.

". . .one student in Georgia put cherry bombs in a toilet. . .He did not get away from the toilet when the bomb went off and [he] was seriously injured in the process. His parents. . .took their son out of the school because they felt the staff was responsible for not having stopped him, and also sued [the school for] $3 million in personal damages.

One other female undergraduate at the University of Kentucky bought heroine from a fellow classmate and administered the drug to herself the night before two big exams. As a result, she failed both tests and sued the university for not having a better patrol to have prevented her from taking the drugs.

"The idea to institute 'character curriculum' into school education is an intense topic of debate. Many argue that students need character education programs because many students are not taught basic values at home; others feel that educators should not force students to follow traditional family forms and values because they belong to a new and different generation.

"Every Thursday evening he [Mr. Barrie] and some others, go down to the Point in Pittsburgh and feed soup and sandwiches to the homeless and needy. He dedicates his own time and money to help others who aren't as fortunate."
Patrick Welsh, Center Christian Academy, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania