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Excerpts from Living Values Activities Books and
Responsibility Ideas at Home for Parents of

• What do you believe in? 
• Do you believe in peace?  
• Do you believe in caring for the environment?
• Using the value of responsibility, what does it mean if we really believe in these things?  
• What kinds of actions does someone do who cares for the environment?  (Make a list on the board as they call out answers.)

Take another item that several young adults say they believe in and ask:   

• If you believe in this, what type of behavior supports that belief?  What would you do?

• Does responsibility mean that my beliefs and actions are consistent?

Think about the following reflection points.  ?Are they true??  Discuss them in light of the previous questions.  

• Responsibility means that you try your best to do what you believe in. 

• If we want peace, we have the responsibility to be peaceful.

• If we want a clean world, we have the responsibility to care for nature.

• With rights there are responsibilities.

Concept:  If we believe in certain principles or values, then what we do or how we act should support our beliefs and values.  For instance, if someone believes in caring for the environment, but then pollutes a stream and wastes water, then that person is not ?walking the talk.?

Activity:  Begin a Personal Responsibility Journal by making several ?I believe in . . .? entries in a notebook.  Follow each sentence starting with ?I believe in . . .?, with a sentence starting with, ?I want the right to . . .?, and then,  ?My responsibilities are . . .? 

Share:  Ask several students to volunteer to share some of their statements.  As a few share, ask someone to write down on the board their ?I believe in . . .? statements.  Keep that list.

Follow-up Actions:  Select one or more actions in support of your ?I believe in . . .? statements to do daily for the next month.  Note your actions in your Personal Responsibility Journal, any consequences of doing that action, and how you felt.

Core Lesson: Dealing With Guilt Constructively

Ask:

• How do you feel when you do not do something you thought you should do?

• What kinds of things do you feel a little badly about if you don?t do?

• What kinds of things do you feel very badly about?

• Is it important to feel badly?  

Feeling sad, ashamed or guilty about a mistake you have made is natural.  It simply means you regret what happened and would have liked to have done something different.  We all make mistakes sometimes.  We are all human.  But feeling guilty or sad for a long time takes away our energy.  A constructive thing to do instead is:

1)      Think about what you wish you would have done.

2)      Identify the value or quality you need for that.

3)      Imagine that quality and feel it in your mind.

4)      Talk kindly to yourself.  Know that the next time that circumstance occurs, you will have the power to do what you want to do.

Activity:  Write a personal essay in your Personal Responsibility Journal, applying those four steps to a situation you would like to change.  Note the changes and how you feel.

Core Activity: Working for a Better World

Some young adults may be cynical, feeling it would never be possible to achieve on our planet all the rights and responsibilities they recommended on their posters.   Cynicism is the result of disappointment at not having the world the way we know it can be.  Acknowledge feelings and concerns.  Then, point out that human beings make a difference.  Humans created the type of world we have now, and the youth of today will create the world of tomorrow.  They are taking an important step in that process by understanding what type of world they want and the rights and responsibilities it entails. 

Read ?A Quiet Passion for Social Justice? below or another story about people who make a difference.

A Quiet Passion for Social Justice

I?m encouraged by the number of people I meet traveling around the world, who quietly work for social justice.  While news of corruption and graft prevail, businesses for social responsibility and ethical leadership seminars are beginning to flourish.  While in India in November of 1999, I met one such gentleman.  Quiet in demeanor, his story was powerful, and his actions have positively effected many lives.

Abel Sade was from Uruguay.  His product is cosmetics.  Nuevo Cosmeticos is one of the fastest growing and most successful businesses in the country.  Fifteen thousand women work as vendors, selling the product door-to-door.  One woman out of every 57 women in the country work for this company.  Many have become social leaders.  All help educate about the prevention of cancer, drug abuse, and more.  Mr. Sade is convinced that business can be a transformational agent in the community. 

Over a cup of Indian chai, he began to relate his story.  The process began slowly.  He listened when a vendor came to him concerned about a client who had breast cancer.  Another was concerned about families who were troubled because their children were using drugs.  He realized that these women wanted to help, but needed skills and information.  The government had the knowledge, but no money for dissemination of health information.  An agreement was signed with a governmental office, and an opportunity created to talk to the women vendors. 

Now, all 15,000 sales representatives meet every 21 days, 600 at a time in 25 zones.  They work as teams and create projects within different communities.  ?One group decided to rebuild a day care center.  We taught them how to present the project to businesses, and how to raise and use the money.?  Abel added, ?Over time, we discovered that women were joining our company not just for the opportunity to earn money as we thought fifteen years ago.  We slowly began to understand that the feeling of belonging, recognition, and motivation to make a difference was the reason.?   

The vendors keep their ears open for news of exceptional projects or practices.  Each December, there is a meeting to honor women, and to reward models that can be replicated.  A director, for example, of a school in a rural zone, developed an after-school organic gardening program.  The vegetables were used in meals, and to buy extra school supplies.  An alliance was formed with an environmental non-governmental organization with expertise in organic farming, and with a company that made the needed materials.  Farmers in the area were interested in the new methods.  Now there are 21 schools doing similar projects involving 3000 students. 

I asked Able, over a second cup of chai, what his core belief was.  Why did he help educate?  He replied slowly, sharing his story of being a social militant in the 60?s.  ?The core value for me is justice.?  Despite being jailed for three years as a result of protesting as a student against a military dictatorship, he continued to work for social justice.  ?I have a strong belief that people must have the same opportunities in life.  I belonged to an upper-middle class family, but as I began to study I felt something was wrong with the distribution of wealth.?  Strongly valuing integrity, Abel used the opportunities that came his way to search for ways to improve the lives of those with whom he was in connect with.  He shared, ?I am now a militant in a different way; I am still working to build a better country.?  When he talks to other business leaders, he tells them that giving back to the community must not be a ?duty? -- it must be ?a desire to give, to build, to love.?  Able shared his conviction, simply saying, ?We can put love into the country.?

Activity:  Look for other examples in the real world of people achieving those rights, and of others behaving responsibly.  Many people are working for a better world.  For example, free and fair elections are now taking place in many more countries, apartheid has ended in South Africa , pollution is lessening in some countries of the world, and literacy is increasing in many countries.  What are effective people, programs or policies that are creating positive change?  Perhaps look at the twelve examples of best practices from the United Nations Global Conference on Habitat for Humanity or ways in which the poorest of the poor are helped through United Nations Development Programs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  Are there NGOs in your area working to improve education, health or human rights of people? 

Discuss the following Reflection Point:

?        A responsible person fulfills the assigned duty by staying true to the aim.  Duties are carried out with integrity and a sense of purpose.

Plan:  Select one small achievable project for which you could take responsibility.  It may be a project that each one could do individually, such as treating each person they meet with dignity.  Or, it could be a project where a small group of young adults provide a service to children in the neighborhood, or ?  Think about tasks you would like to be responsible for.