Week 6 Term 2

Under the spotlight this term is Responsibility. It’s one of our seven core values. 

Like the other values, we’re working not only on how well it’s understood by the boys but how well it’s practiced. Values are learned through living them.

I’m pleased to report that there’s plenty of responsibility being shown by our young men. 

 A lot of confidence in New Zealand’s future can be taken from just how much responsibility is seen in their progress, success, and meeting the needs of others. Teenage boys can at times seem to be portrayed quite negatively in the media and entertainment. You could form the impression that they’re all constantly engaged in irresponsible, self-indulgent, high risk or anti-social behaviour, poor decision making, or plagued by a lack of intelligence and imagination. 

We all know that this is patently untrue and misleading. It doesn’t do the self–perception of our young men any favours either. It only takes minutes in the company of the boys at King’s to debunk these stereotypes, and to see the overwhelmingly admirable qualities they exhibit and enjoy. Arguably, the boys in this generation show greater responsibility than the one that came before them.

To know responsibility for the achievement of personal excellence, some key ideas are being developed with the boys this term:

• A responsibility can be big or small
• We learn to take on more responsibility step by step as we get older and gain more experience
• To be responsible is to be obliged or bound to do something for yourself or for other people
• To be responsible is to be reliable
• Responsibility is part of leadership
• Responsibility should be seen as like one side of a coin that contains ‘rights’ on one side and ‘responsibilities’ on the other. They go together
• The expectation of taking responsibility is backed up in law
• Being responsible for something is to ‘own’ how good it is or how good it will become
• If chosen to be responsible for something it’s a vote of confidence in you
• Responsibility starts with being responsible for yourself before you can be responsible for others
• We are responsible for honouring those who came before us – who they were and what they achieved.