Responsibility and Self-Reliance

Responsibility vs. Self-Reliance

by Harvey Craft

The Self-Reliant Student is Typically an Avid Reader

Teachers spend much time talking to students, parents, and other teachers about responsibility. There is a dominating desire for responsible students and an apparent shortage of them. Like many buzz words in education, responsibility is not always the same thing to different people. Most think of the word as meaning voluntarily completing required tasks, following a moral, legal, or other accepted code, and these actions must be done according to schedules and with an appropriate attitude. The definition often gets distorted by adults to simply, “Do as I say!”

Teachers try a variety of methods to “teach” responsibility. They assign various tasks to help take care of the class – emptying trash cans, helping with bulletin boards, and homework! But much of what is done to foster responsibility is really done to manage behavior and encourage obedience. Of course, proper behavior and obedience are closely related to responsibility and obedience – well-behaved students are more fun to teach, and usually easier to manage.

The Self-Reliant Student

I defer to Ralph Waldo Emerson for my ideas about self-reliance, and while it can be confused with responsibility self-reliance emphasizes a stronger development of innate awareness of the confusing topic of right and wrong. Responsibility is part of self-reliance, but the self-reliant student often possesses a recognizable independence which can possible create conflict.

Knowing Oneself

The self-reliant student trusts himself and is comfortable with his decisions even when they conflict with teachers’ instructions. The student will have a developing sense of his future, and see a successful self. This may well involve making decisions that are not socially popular. Self-reliance is not based on another person’s notion of what he should do.

Still, responsibility is important, but self-reliance involves an advanced understanding of responsibility – these students will already know what responsible behavior is, and it might not always agree with the accepted examples.

Consider a teacher who believes that homework helps develops responsibility. Suppose the teacher is checking homework and encounters a student who says confidently, “I only answered two questions. I already know the others really well.” The teacher may record a poor grade, but those who truly know what works for them may be willing to avoid what they consider busy work and appear to be rude. Grades may be only marginally important to self-reliant students.

Social and Global Knowledge

The world advances by the desires of the self-reliant. They possess a keen knowledge of “what’s going on” that comes from a prodigious awareness of good and bad ideas, right and wrong behavior, and they collect and mentally file important facts about the world.

Consider the teacher who believes in the old and unjust practice of punishing the entire class because one or two people would not comply with instructions. The self-reliant student may politely raise his hand and say, “Discipline like this turns us against the really guilty people. What if your neighbor shot someone in his home and the whole neighborhood had to go to jail for his action?” Once again he’s being rude.

Should students challenge what teachers say? Why not, if they are right? Adults can and should learn from students.

Reading books – not necessarily assigned books – in class can be a sign of self reliance. The student reads what he wants to because he likes to learn. He will engage adults in discussions about what he knows or wants to understand. Teachers may see these students as “showoffs” or disruptive because they may frequently take class discussions in another direction or ask too many seemingly irrelevant questions.

The Downside of Self-Reliant Behavior

Generally, self-reliant behavior is positive, but must be understood and guided properly by (preferably) self-reliant adults. There are numerous examples of highly successful people who withdrew from school because they had pretty well figured out what they needed and wanted to do to be successful, and didn’t put much value on a college degree. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both come to one’s mind, and it is easy to imagine that friends and relatives may have viewed them as irresponsible for dropping out of school.

Self-reliance develops as we grow. Some never become self-reliant. Some are victims of imagined or misguided self-reliance that leads them to reject the accepted ways of society only to fail economically and socially. A healthy social life is generally helpful for all. Developing friendships helps people remain attached to the normal world which and that world provides benefits for everyone.

Teachers and the Self-Reliant

Responsibility is a good thing, self-reliance is better, but can present challenges to teachers who don’t recognize it. Allow the self-reliant student room to develop – if he doesn't need homework, why make him do it anyway. Let him choose an assignment that is more related to his interests.

Before denouncing these students as rude or disrespectful, try to understand where they are. They may well be experiencing intense boredom or daydreaming in a positive way. That the teacher understand respect their choice to learn but not always make A’s is important. Unconventional behavior is OK as long as it is not disruptive.

Teachers might want to read “Self-Reliance” or have certain students read it. Emerson is advanced in his writing, but has much of value to offer. Perhaps the last line of the essay is most important:

“Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.”