Rockridge High School
Taylor Ridge, Illinois
Teacher: Barbara Downey
Personal Responsibility
By Matt Schluenz
Grade 12
The quality of community life is diminishing very quickly, and we the citizens need to
bring it back up to a quality that is respectful. Our morals have gone down and
society is to blame. What used to be looked upon as unheard of is now common in our
society today: acts such as divorce, dropping out of school, under age drinking, and
drug use. What is the reason for this? How can we prevent it from getting
worse? There is no easy answer to these questions. It takes work, and we have
a personal responsibility to improve the quality of life in our communities.
When Grandma and Grandpa tell me stories of way back when, they say divorce was very
uncommon, even unheard of. They say that the whole community would look down on a
married couple who broke up. Then I look over at my mom who is happily married to
someone other than my father. Even though this was not my mother's choice, it is
still very common to have divorced parents.
Then we have the shows like Jerry Springer that make millions of dollars off of shows with
such titles as "My niece had sex with your aunt's husband."
This is a problem that we see as entertainment. Marriage is not even a necessity any
more. Not only are divorce rates higher than ever, but there is a growing number of
couples that have children and are not even thinking about getting married. Is this
OK? It seems that way, for we are not doing anything to prevent or discourage it.
Why are divorces so common? Maybe the answer to this question is easier than you
think. I can see two legitimate reasons: our lives are too complicated
and families donıt spend enough quality time together. I think we are moving too
fast. We need to slow down and look at what is really important, or we will pass up what
life is all about.
Now itıs time to put the blame on my age group. Teenagers donıt really help
society at all; in fact , we hurt it. Sometimes it is the parental figure who is at
fault, but other times it our rebellious nature that gets us in trouble. All the
talk shows that say we're trying to "reach out" are wrong. We're trying to
show our individualism, but we are showing it in the wrong way. Some see the dollar
signs($$), drop out of school, and get a full time job. They donıt look at the big
picture, say fifteen years from now. We don't look at our knees getting bad or our
bodies wearing out; we just want our independence. What some high school students do
not get, though, is that the world is advancing so quickly and pretty soon a job will
require not only a high school degree but a college one as well. I believe if we can
somehow make education more interesting and less stressful, there would be a significant
decrease in students dropping out.
Because of our rebellious nature, drugs and alcohol are a problem with teenagers.
Maybe teenagers use drugs and alcohol to get away from the pressure to succeed.
This, of course, is the wrong path. Most high school students I know (including
myself) have their priorities mixed up. Our first priority is probably to have fun
which may include drinking or the extreme cases, drug use, and our second priority is, of
course, school. But isn't school where we define our destiny? This is where
society and our morals as Americans need a swift kick in the butt to get us back on track.
I do agree that high school should be fun but the way we have fun is not the best thing
for us. Health class is not enough. I think we need a better quality of
parental influence to show that alcohol and drug use will, in fact, hurt us in the long
run.
If we all do our part, we can improve the quality of life in our communities. I do
not believe that there is just one key to open the door to a better life. A
combination of things are needed in order to get the ball rolling in the right
direction: like bonding (family time together), slowing our lives down, searching
for what is important in life (hint: happiness and maybe even religion). However we
do achieve our goal and overcome our faults, we need to do it quickly, or we will never
enjoy life to its fullest.
Questions
1. The U. S. does not invest in marriage. We take it too lightly when it should be
the most important decision of our entire life. Our morals have changed, marriage is
not as necessary as it used to be. In Manus, the relatives in marriage financially.
The groomıs side invests dogs teeth and shell money and the recipients on the brideıs
side pay these amounts back later in pigs and oil.
2. Couple one: married 20 years
Husband: Set time aside for the two of them.
Wife: Agreed with husband.
Couple two: married 18 years
Wife: A group effort on chores.
Husband: Communication on anything and everything.
Couple three: married 53 years
Wife: Listen to each other when they need you.
Husband: Agreed with wife.
Couple four: married 7 years
Husband: Surprises keep the excitement alive.
Wife: Both be a part of the kids lives.
Couple five: married 17 years
Husband: Always remember the anniversary.
Wife: Communication is a big key.
3. Our collective goal for the environment, according to Richard Eckersley, should be to
dematerialize society without reducing the quality of life.
4. I believe a worthy goal for our community could be to improve schooling and eliminate
drug trafficking.
5. Richard Eckersley stated
that we could find ourselves in a winner-take-all society. I believe this is true,
we only look out for ourselves and this could ruin society.
6. Lawyers are helpful in a democracy because we pride ourselves in individualism.
Lawyers are helpful in diversity because they help mediate diversity of custom.
People who worry about health care and longevity of human life often are people who have
to think about what law can do to solve those problems. For size, lawyers help to
achieve what the economists call economies of scale.
7. I believe that bad practices are changed by regulations because everyone needs
rules. An alternative to this could be rewards for good practices. Then workers will
want to do good.
8. When the baby boomers retire, they seem to be helping society for employment.
This will also create more jobs for the young adults coming into the work force. The
country will really be able to advance because the young adults will be trained in more
advanced fields.
9. The time is ripe for President Clinton's anti-poverty program to make an impact.
There is really no other time to do it. The only way you can keep the economic
recovery going is to have new people working and new people buying. Those new people
are the poor. The new markets represent a sort of developing country inside America.
10. Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis are both church goers, care about children, and are trying
to do something to help them have a better life.