Harriman High School

Harriman, Tennessee

Teacher: Nancy Newcomb

 

Personal Responsibility

By Chris Stafford

Grade 10

           

 

Personal responsibility is not taken seriously in our society today.  If we are going to improve the quality of life in our communities today, the younger generation will need to understand that they must take personal responsibility for their actions. One way to do this is by discipline that will teach them early in life that there are consequences for their actions.  By teaching them not to run away from problems but to work through them, they will develop this skill at a very early age this will help the younger generations prepare for interactions in marriage, work, and all areas of life.

 

We need to teach the younger generation to work their hardest on everything and to complete everything they attempt.  Often times, if we have problems we do not try to solve them; we just throw them on another person or another department instead of just doing it yourself.  Even our own president, whom we look to as an example, did not take personal responsibility for his actions.  He chose to lie until it was impossible to do so.  We cannot follow his example, but develop a personal desire to accept the consequences of our actions.

           

If parents today taught their kids to work through their problems and not to run away from them, I believe the divorce rate would lower.  Today the divorce rate is over 50%. This shows me that couples are not ready for marriage when they think they are.   People give up too easily, and they do not try to work out their problems.  Many couples today are getting married for the wrong reasons.   Sometimes it’s because of an unplanned pregnancy.   They get married, but they do not love each other.  So they end up getting divorced when any problem occurs.  This high divorce rate is causing much of the breakdown in family values.

           

Today in society there is an abundance of job opportunities in the United States and the world.  The future generation is coming into a good time of living.  The economy is booming, and there are more jobs than ever.  Most jobs require a college degree, but that is a small price to pay for success.  Jobs today look for hard workers and people who will get the job done.  This requires people who are responsible and dedicated.  If you are not responsible enough to get up every morning, then you are not going to last long in the work force.  I believe that when you are young, you should gain experience by working-not always the high paying jobs but the ones that will help you in the future.  You have to start off somewhere but, in the long run, what you learn could help you later.

           

Today in society we do not solve problems ourselves. We either pass it on to some one else or we just do not fix the problem.  Take for instance the working class who provides most of the spending money for the government.  They pay the majority of taxes while the rich find ways to be exempt from many taxes many times by giving money to foundations.  The government uses our money to help other countries when we our selves are in trillions of dollars of debt.  Why not wait to give those countries help till we take care of our problems first.  We just keep letting the debt get larger and larger.  Just think, the United States is considered the richest nation in the world and we are in trillions of dollars of debt.   Just think how much richer we would be if we did not have any debt.  The only power the middle class has to change this are to elect officials who we hope will change this.

           

Responsibility is a virtue today in society.  Many want it but don’t know how to put the effort out to have it.  If everyone were responsible, then the world would not be in the shape it is now.  The weak would become stronger; the strong would be wiser.  The United States has many issues that responsibility would solve.  But we live in a sinister world where there are sinister people, and they do not know how to take responsibility for their actions.  If you do something wrong, you should know the consequences before you do it.  Then you would be prepared to take your punishment.  Our country is strong because a long time ago a few men decided to take responsibility and make this great nation.  Then more men decided to take responsibility and destroy an evil man, who was called Hitler.  Throughout our history men stepped up to take responsibility, and my question is what has happened to all those men?

 

Answers To Questions

 

Q1:  Manus:  The 2 families contributed money to each other.

        USA:  The U.S the families contribute money for the marriage but not really after.

 

Q2:  23 years:  take time and talk to each other.

        15 years:  cooperate with each other and work through the problems.

        9 years:  be faithful and keep faith in your partner.

       45 years:  spend as much time as possible with each other.

       5 years:  have fun and stay as close as possible.

 

Q3:  dematerialize society without reducing the quality of life.

 

Q4:  to become closer as a community.

 

Q5:  America is going to be a very diverse country filled with many different minorities.  

 

Q6:  They protect us from the danger of tyranny of the majority.  They help to work out the differences.

 

Q7:  I prefer punitive damages and regulations because if they just have to pay money then they win but when they have to pay and they lose there job then they think about what they have done.

 

Q8:      The U.S. could prosper because the baby boomers will offer more jobs to the oncoming generations.  The baby boomers could offer advice and help to the next generation.  Many of the baby boomers will work into there 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.  But when the baby boomers retire the next generation will fill in the jobs they vacated.

 

Q9:      I think that his antipoverty program will help some of the people get back on their feet but I think many just don’t want help.  I think the program will work because the addition of funding to the areas could help them get jobs.  I believe that the minorities will pick up the slack in the future for the economy they will be the key since that area in the population is growing the most.  America will become a very different nation in the future if this program works.

 

Q10:    Both liked kids.

            Both established a foundation for kids.

            Both started from small beginnings.