Harriman High School

Harriman, Tennessee
Teacher: Nancy Newcomb

 

 

Personal Responsibility: Throughout The Years

By Kristy Bolden

Grade 10

 

 

When I was a little girl, my parents taught me that everyone needs to learn to take on her own personal responsibilities. In my family those responsibilities were things such as picking up my toys and helping clean the house by washing the dishes.  My mom told me that even something as simple as throwing something away that was lying around the house was an important responsibility.  She said that I would be doing my part to help her out.  Each family member’s personal responsibility is different, but is just as important as the one before.  As I became older, my responsibilities got harder and more challenging.

 

As a young child my parents decided what my personal responsibilities were going to be.  At this age I could be responsible by managing my own money, even though it was a small amount.  My chores began to get harder, like helping wash clothes or being responsible for my younger sibling.  As I progressed in school, the homework got harder and longer.  It took more time to complete each assignment, and I had to be responsible enough to finish my homework before I went outside to play.  Like I said before, as I got older, my personal responsibilities were becoming much harder and more challenging.  At the same time, I got older and was able to do more than I could before.  My parents had put trust in me and felt that I was a more responsible person.

 

As I become a teenager I will have even more personal responsibilities than I did as a little child.  I may even begin to make my own responsibilities. I will have a lot more school work and maybe even a job. Even such things as having a boyfriend or girlfriend takes a lot of personal responsibility.  As independent as my life may seem, my parents will still have some responsibilities for me to tackle.  Around this age is a time when I can really feel like I am making a difference in this world.  I may begin to feel like my responsibilities help more than just the people surrounding me all the time do.

 

As an adult, I will have to decide what my major personal responsibilities are in this world.  I will have to be responsible in deciding if I want to go to college or not.  Then I will have to decide what I will major in.  While being away from home, I will have to be responsible in the decisions I make each day.  I will have to use what my parents taught me and be responsible enough to make the right choices.  After I graduate, I will probably get a major job and learn to manage a lot more money.  I may even decide to get married and have children.  Deciding this brings on a new ball game of responsibilities, more than I could ever imagine.  I would not only be responsible for my husband and myself, I would also be personally responsible for the lives of my children.  Even if I did not decide to get married or have children, I would still be totally responsible for myself and my actions.  The responsibility would all be on me because my parents would no longer be there to tell me what to do or how to do it.

 

The point of learning personal responsibility as a child is that I will already know how to take on my own responsibilities when I reach adulthood. I think it would be hard for me to move out of the house, begin to live on my own and suddenly have all this work to do without any help.  The major reason our parents give us chores as young children and as teenagers is to get us ready to live on our own as adults. 

 

Everyone has to participate and do his or her part in a family as well as in the world.  This way no one person will feel like they are carrying all the weight around. Every responsibility that anyone in this world has, is just as important as the one before. My mom said that if all people will do their part as an adult, such as getting a job and helping to raise their family, then this world will run a lot smoother. We all have a lot of personal responsibilities at every age in our lives, but no matter what the responsibility and no matter what the age of the person doing it, it is all very important to this world.   

 

Answers To Questions Regarding The Required Reading

 

 

1) Manus- The family and close friends contribute financially.  The Groom’s family gives a payment in dogs’ teeth and shell money to the bride’s family.  The bride’s family gives a payment back to the groom’s family in pigs and oil.

    USA- The couple in the relationship invest in God and in each other.  Sometimes they may invest some money of some sort.

 

 

2) a) 24 years of marriage; married 1 time

        Spend time with one another and communicate.

 

    b) 24 years of marriage; married 1 time

        Learn when to shut up and don’t spend a lot of money.  Don’t argue with her               because you will never win anyway.

 

    c) 45 years of marriage; married 1 time

        You have to give and take a little.  Learn how to share.  There are no yours                and mine, only ours.

 

    d) 45 years of marriage; married 1 time

        Keep your mouth shut and don’t argue.  It’s all give and take.

 

    e) 40 years of marriage; married 1 time

        Keep your mouth shut.  Communicate with one another.  Pray a lot.  Keep faith  in God.  Know your spiritual values.  Overlook the faults in the other person  Respect one another.

 

    f) 23 years of marriage; married 1 time

        Overlook the small things.  Treat your spouse as you want to be treated.  Be honest.

 

    g) 13 years of marriage; married 1 time

        Communicate with each other.  Remember to say I love you.

 

h) 13 years of marriage; married 1 time

    Try not to argue a lot.  Keep on communicating with one another.  Pray  together.

 

    i) 17 years of marriage; married 1 time

        Communicate with one another.  Talk with your spouse, not about them. Share your feelings

 

    j) 17 years of marriage; married 1 time

        Keep on loving no matter what.  Keep the lines of communication open.  Pray  together often.

 

 

3) a) We should choose to live to change the world.

    b) To dematerialize society without reducing the quality of life.

 

4) A worthy goal for my local community would be to clean up the streets.  We have a lot of garbage on the streets and it needs to be in the trash cans.  If we all work together then it can happen, but if even one person doesn’t participate, the whole project goes bad.

 

5) I think it is silly to make a replication of a mother and hand it to a child and say,”Ok, here is your mother.”  That is not a real parent figure.  What you are really doing is messing up the child.  They would be better off going into foster care than believing that some doll can give them the love they need.  To truly be loved, you need a real, breathing person to tell you they love you and show you they love you.

 

6) a) Kathleen Sullivan said that lawyers can solve problems in an honest, indifferent, and fair way.  This is how or democracy is supposed to work.

    b) There are so many problems with an environment where there are a lot of people who have a lot of money.  People get jealous or mad and problems break out.  This is where lawyers can be helpful because they can solve those big problems.

 

7) a) I prefer punitive damages because it is just crazy to regulate every single thing in this world.  Actually it is probably impossible.

    b) I think until this world gets better, which it probably never will, there is no alternative to this situation.

 

8) When the baby boomers retire, they can offer services for the Generation X’ers, provide opportunities for teenage entrepreneurs, and provide mentoring services for children. Retirees can offer childcare for the generation X’ers. They can give small jobs to teenagers, such as running errands and assisting with household chores. Finally, they can mentor small children and help them with their daily problems. Just because the baby boomers retire, doesn’t mean they have to slow down and stop working.

 

9) I don’t think President Clinton’s anti-poverty program will really work.  His intentions are good, but not everyone would participate and it just wouldn’t work.  There will always be bad in this world no matter how hard anyone tries to change it.  You can’t change the world overnight and, really, you can’t change it over the years either.  It is sad to say, but the world gets worse, not better.

 

10) a) They both liked kids.

      b) They both established an organization for kids who needed help.

      c) They both started small and ended big.