Words of Wisdom, 05-13-11

When I was growing up, we talked about the 3 R’s—Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic.  Of course they’re not really R’s, but they did emphasize the part of education that was considered the most important.

Now, I would talk about 3 new R’s which I personally consider the most important things to learn in school and in the real world.  They are Rules, Respect and Responsibility.  Rules have gotten a bad name because the theory is that anyone can learn a rule, but rules often hold our society together until we can learn the other two.

Respect means honoring other people and their property.  Self respect means valuing yourself. Responsibility is the most difficult and the most important of the three.  Your happiness will be directly related to your ability to own your actions.

Let me give you an example.  Recently there has been a great deal of damage done to school property in the libraries.  Batteries have been taken out of laptops, keys have been removed from keyboards and damage has been done to books.  These actions violate all three of the 3 R’s.

I hope you will take your place in the school more seriously.  We all have a chance every day to show that we have learned how to get along following the rules, respecting ourselves and others and taking responsibility for our actions